ASM 275 Unit 3 - Study Guide Exam
Question & Answers ( Latest 2025)
Perimortem - CORRECT ANSWER ✅injury happened near time of
death (helps to reconstruct cause and manner of death)
Antemortem - CORRECT ANSWER ✅injury happened before death
(used to link medical records)
Postmortem - CORRECT ANSWER ✅there is no injury, the bone
breakage occurred after death
(doesn't contribute to forensic analysis)
How to differentiate perimortem, antemortem, and postmortem
trauma? - CORRECT ANSWER ✅Antemortem Trauma
1) hematoma forms: blood pools over surface - internal scab to help
stabilize the break
2) callus formation: woven bone deposited
3) remodeling of woven bone into mature bone
- process of bone healing should be present (increase porosity/holes of
bone near break, rounding of broken edges <1 week, callus presence 6+
weeks)
- remodeling (years, can sometimes never fully heal/callus never goes
away)
Perimortem Trauma
,ASM 275 Unit 3 - Study Guide Exam
Question & Answers ( Latest 2025)
- no signs of heeling
- green bone response
1) sharp edges of fracture and lines
2) hinging - not seen in postmortem fractures
3) fracture lines
4) angled broken ends
5) hematoma staining
Postmortem Trauma
- not related to death, occurs after death
1) do not have fracture lines
2) greenstick and hinge fractures absent
3) breaks occur at right angles to bone shaft
Blunt Force Trauma: types of objects - CORRECT ANSWER ✅- blunt
instruments (crowbars, baseball bats)
- car/train/airplane crashes
- abrasions of all kinds ('Road Rash')
- bites
- falls
, ASM 275 Unit 3 - Study Guide Exam
Question & Answers ( Latest 2025)
Blunt Force Trauma:
- laceration
- contusion
- abrasion - CORRECT ANSWER ✅Laceration: a tear in the skin caused
by a blunt instrument
- can be distinguished from a sharp force injury because they often have
contusions (strings of flesh)
Contusion: a brusie
- almost always blunt force'
- a bruise changes in color from light bluish red to dark purple, then to
green, then to yellow, then to brown. this can help you tell the
difference between antemortem and perimortem trauma
- a bruise may not be immediately apparent on initial examination, but
may become readily observable some hours or days later
Abrasion: superficial scraping and/or stretching
- scraping and removal of superficial layers of skin
- road rash: body dragged along paved area
- stretching abrasion: caused by stretching of skin beyond its elastic
tolerance, as is also often seen in road accidents
Question & Answers ( Latest 2025)
Perimortem - CORRECT ANSWER ✅injury happened near time of
death (helps to reconstruct cause and manner of death)
Antemortem - CORRECT ANSWER ✅injury happened before death
(used to link medical records)
Postmortem - CORRECT ANSWER ✅there is no injury, the bone
breakage occurred after death
(doesn't contribute to forensic analysis)
How to differentiate perimortem, antemortem, and postmortem
trauma? - CORRECT ANSWER ✅Antemortem Trauma
1) hematoma forms: blood pools over surface - internal scab to help
stabilize the break
2) callus formation: woven bone deposited
3) remodeling of woven bone into mature bone
- process of bone healing should be present (increase porosity/holes of
bone near break, rounding of broken edges <1 week, callus presence 6+
weeks)
- remodeling (years, can sometimes never fully heal/callus never goes
away)
Perimortem Trauma
,ASM 275 Unit 3 - Study Guide Exam
Question & Answers ( Latest 2025)
- no signs of heeling
- green bone response
1) sharp edges of fracture and lines
2) hinging - not seen in postmortem fractures
3) fracture lines
4) angled broken ends
5) hematoma staining
Postmortem Trauma
- not related to death, occurs after death
1) do not have fracture lines
2) greenstick and hinge fractures absent
3) breaks occur at right angles to bone shaft
Blunt Force Trauma: types of objects - CORRECT ANSWER ✅- blunt
instruments (crowbars, baseball bats)
- car/train/airplane crashes
- abrasions of all kinds ('Road Rash')
- bites
- falls
, ASM 275 Unit 3 - Study Guide Exam
Question & Answers ( Latest 2025)
Blunt Force Trauma:
- laceration
- contusion
- abrasion - CORRECT ANSWER ✅Laceration: a tear in the skin caused
by a blunt instrument
- can be distinguished from a sharp force injury because they often have
contusions (strings of flesh)
Contusion: a brusie
- almost always blunt force'
- a bruise changes in color from light bluish red to dark purple, then to
green, then to yellow, then to brown. this can help you tell the
difference between antemortem and perimortem trauma
- a bruise may not be immediately apparent on initial examination, but
may become readily observable some hours or days later
Abrasion: superficial scraping and/or stretching
- scraping and removal of superficial layers of skin
- road rash: body dragged along paved area
- stretching abrasion: caused by stretching of skin beyond its elastic
tolerance, as is also often seen in road accidents
