Presentation
Head trauma.
Patient Data
No post-traumatic changes of the brain and skull.
A tortuous diploic vein is seen crossing the right parietal bone with rarified outer table mimicking a fracture in 3D reformat image.
Case Discussion
Identifying normal variants of skull and fracture mimics is important to avoid the diagnosis of non-accidental trauma in children.
Among skull fractures, parietal skull fractures are more suggestive of accidental injury. In this case, there was no swelling or tenderness over the right parietal bone and the patient was discharged after a normal CT brain report.
Fracture mimics include; intraparietal suture 1, fissures, neurovascular channels 2 and inca bone 3.
CT features suspicious of pseudofractures include; defined smooth margins, or interdigitating margins, an abnormality seen in one plane only on multiplanar CT, symmetrical appearances and absence of soft tissue injury 2.
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