Occipital depression fractures in childhood. A report of 14 cases.

In this paper, we present 14 cases with depression fracture of the occipital bone in pediatric age. There were 7 males and 7 females. Their ages ranged from 1 year to 15 years with a median of 5.8 years. The most common causes were: falling (8 cases); traffic accidents (2); assault (2 cases). Five of our 14 cases had compound fractures and the remaining 9 had closed fractures. Epidural and subdural hematomas were observed in 5 and 1 cases, respectively. There was significant improvement in 11 cases; two patients died.