Abstract
Forensic anthropologists assist medical examiners by identifying and assessing acute traumatic injury patterns in pediatric patients via dissection and/or radiographic analyses. Often invasive dissection with bone removal, the most common method used by the forensic anthropologist, is precluded for obvious legal and ethical reasons. Consequently, the forensic anthropologist tends to use radiography in trauma assessment. Unfortunately, pediatric rib fractures prove difficult to radiographically detect. This study fills a gap in existing research that relied heavily on the meta-analysis of adjudicated cases by experimentally inducing rib fractures. This research involves the use of humanly euthanized invasive Burmese pythons (Python bivittatus) to investigate the accuracy and reliability of radiographic trauma analysis using experimentally induced rib fractures by comparing the radiographic findings to the gross osteological analysis of the cleaned remains.
The results proved the difficulty in detecting rib fractures through radiographic analysis, especially in the anterior region. Overall, 42% (n =25) of rib fractures were detected through radiographic analysis with 24% (n = 14) identified correctly by location. The anterior region showed to be the most difficult location to detect through radiographic analysis (1 out of 19 fractures). This study showed similar sensitivity for detecting rib fractures and lower sensitivity in identifying the correct rib fracture location. This work underscored the importance of dry bone analysis conducted by forensic anthropologists to supplement the pathologist’s autopsy, especially in cases involving suspected fatal child abuse involving traumatic injuries to the thorax.
