[Congestive brain swelling in victims of fatal road accident. Frequency and association with other head injury lesions].

A morphological study, macro and microscopical, was made of brain lesions in 120 victims of fatal road traffic accidents. Congestive brain swelling occurred in 21 (17.5%) patients. Owing to the brain swelling that increases the brain volume, an increase of brain weight was also observed. Brain contusion was the most frequent lesion associated with congestive brain swelling (76.2%), while the intracranial haematomas were observed in almost half of the cases.