Überrollverletzungen am leichenfuß: Eine experimentelle orthopädisch-rechtsmedizinische studie

Injuries of the foot caused by being run over pose a serious problem for orthopaedic and forensic evaluation. These injuries are mostly caused by negligence and the incident usually takes place at walking speed. For an expert opinion or during court proceedings, the question regularly arises whether there are soft tissue injuries or injuries of the foot skeleton, especially the forefoot. Quite often the injured person is not believed due to lack of proof of any injury. In order to answer the question 10 isolated and differently shoed feet of deceased people who had donated their body for research purposes were examined. The feet were run over in a straight line at right angles to the longitudinal axis of the foot at walking speed by the left front wheel of a VW Passat Kombi pumped up to a pressure of 2 bar. X-ray photographs of the feet were taken in a.-p. and lateral planes before and after the running over procedure. Following this the feet were prepared and histological examinations were conducted. These examinations led to the following results: during the running over process a macroscopically demarcated superficial skin abrasion could be found only on the unshoed part of the foot and this could be verified histologically. There was no evidence of bone injuries in the x-rays taken, however, the absence of bone injuries to a foot does not exclude that it has been run over by a vehicle.