Forensic medical determination of the age of fractures based on X-ray research methods: A literature review

Abstract

Fractures of various locations occupy the second place as a result of traumatism, both in Russia and abroad, in Iran, and in the daily work of a forensic expert, skeletal trauma is, if not prevalent, then one of the main ones during the examination of victims, accused and other persons. In addition to determining the mechanism of bone fracture formation, the expert is faced with the question of a long-standing injury. Determining the time period for the occurrence of bodily injuries in living persons, as a rule, does not involve special labor if there are full-fledged objects for research. A much more difficult task is the case of determining the age of a bone fracture from control radiographs, without primary clinical and radiological data, when the expert is provided with only control radiographs of the area of ​​interest, taken, as a rule, after a long period of time after the injury, as an object for study. In modern domestic and foreign scientific sources there are no clear criteria for determining the age of fractures based on the results of radiography. In the forensic medical literature there are works devoted to this issue, based, however, on the results of non-radiological research methods: histological, histochemical, fractographic, ultrasound and others. In the specialized literature on traumatology, resolving the problem of how long ago fractures occurred is not a priority. The analysis of literary sources shows the relevance of the study of the radiography method for the tasks of forensic medical practice.