Description
This shows the 3 cusps of the aortic valve. There is a transverse tear, with surrounding bruising in
the posterolateral cusps close to the line of attachment.
History
This young man, while hang-gliding at Paekakariki, crashed into the side of a hill,
sustaining a vertical circumferential fracture of the skull, fracture of the lower jaw in the midline,
fracture of the sternum. There was extensive bruising in the lungs and mediastinum and in the
heart, but the ribs were not broken. The lesion shown here is traumatic in origin.