THE NATURE, DISTRIBUTION AND CAUSES OF TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY

The identification and interpretation of brain damage resulting from a non-missile head injury is often not easy with the result that the mo st obvious structural damage identified postmortem may not be the most important in trying to establish clinicopathological correlations. Fo r example patients with a fracture of the skull, quite severe cerebral contusions or a large intracranial haematoma that is successfully tre ated can make an uneventful and complete recovery if no other types of brain damage are present. However, not infrequently more subtle forms of pathology are present and ones that can only be identified microsc opically. A systematic and pragmatic approach through the autopsy is t herefore required and one that recognises the need for tissue to be re tained in ways that are appropriate for cellular and molecular studies .