MECHANICAL TOLERANCE OF TENTORIUM CEREBELLI

In some accident cases primary traumatic brain stem hemorrhages are seen in conjunction with lesions of the tentorium cerebelli. To decide whether accelerations of the infra- or supratentorial brain tissue are actually capable of causing tentorium lesions, burst and tear tests of tentorium tissue were conducted. The mean dynamic biaxial tearing force was about 4 bar. This value supports the hypothesis that a main injury causing factor of the tentorium in cases without skull fracture could be the relative motion between the tentorium and the brain hemispheres. The mass of the human cerebellum seems to be insufficient to cause such injury producing deceleration forces on the tentorium.