[Burst lobe in victims of fatal road traffic accident. Frequency and association with other head injury].

A morphological study, macro and microscopical, was made of brain lesions in 120 victims of fatal road traffic accidents. Burst lobes were identified in 12 (10.0%) of the patients. It occurred in the frontal lobe in 6 (50.0%) patients, in the temporal lobe in 2 (16.7%) and in both lobes in 4 (33.3%) patients. A skull fracture occurred in 8 (66.7%) patients and intracranial hypertension occurred in half of cases. Nine patients were admitted in coma and three patients died immediately after the road traffic accident. All cases of burst lobes were associated with diffuse axonal injury, which explains the severe alteration of consciousness observed at the patients' admission.