Mechanical injuries
Blunt, sharp and firearm injuries: entry and exit wounds and range of fire.
30 pages
Finding
- Abdominal and pelvic injuriesBlows to the abdomen can tear the liver, spleen or bowel with almost no mark on the skin; the…
- AbrasionsAn abrasion is loss of the surface layer of the skin from friction or pressure by an object; it…
- Bruises and haematomas: recognising them, and why colour cannot date themA bruise is blood escaped from broken vessels under intact skin; its colour cannot tell reliably…
- Chest injuries, aortic rupture and resuscitation artefactsChest injuries kill by bleeding, air and heart damage; the doctor must also tell injuries from…
- Chop woundsChop wounds are made by heavy edged objects such as machetes or axes; they cut and crush at the…
- Contusions, coup–contrecoup and diffuse axonal injuryBruises of the brain and damage to its nerve fibres show how the head moved, and they explain…
- Defence wounds and hesitation marksDefence wounds appear on the hands and forearms when warding off an attack; hesitation marks are…
- Explosion injuriesAn explosion injures in four ways: the pressure wave, the fragments, the body being thrown, and…
- Extradural, subdural and subarachnoid haemorrhage in forensic practiceWhere blood collects inside the skull points to the vessel that bled, the force involved, and…
- Fat, air and thromboembolism after injuryAfter an injury, fat, air or blood clots can travel to the lungs or brain and kill; the autopsy…
- Gunshot entry woundAn entry wound is usually small and round, with inverted edges and an abrasion ring; depending…
- Gunshot exit wound and telling it from the entryAn exit wound is usually larger and irregular, with everted edges and no rings or residues; but…
- Incised woundsAn incised wound is made by an edge drawn across the skin; it is longer than deep and has clean…
- Lacerations: blunt-force tears of the skinA laceration is a tear of the skin from a blow or stretching; it has irregular edges…
- Patterned injuries: what the mark says about the objectA patterned injury copies the shape of the object or surface that caused it, and can link a…
- Puncture and stab woundsPuncture and stab wounds are made by pointed objects; they are deeper than long and the danger…
- Self-inflicted injuries: suicidal, self-harm and fabricatedSome injuries are made by the person on themselves, to die, to relieve distress, or to support a…
- Shotgun woundsA shotgun fires many pellets: close up they make one large hole and, as the range grows, many…
- Skull fractures: linear, depressed, ring and basalThe type of skull fracture tells the forensic doctor about the force, the object and the…
- Spinal and cervical injuriesNeck and spine injuries can kill at once or leave a person paralysed; at autopsy they are easy…
Topic
- Classifying mechanical injuriesMechanical injuries are classified by the object that caused them: blunt, sharp-edged, pointed…
- Complications of injury and the chain of causationWhen a person dies days or weeks after an injury, the doctor must say whether the death followed…
- Firearms and ammunition for the doctorThe type of weapon and ammunition changes the wound: knowing this helps you describe it well and…
- Head injury in forensic medicine: the scalp and an overviewHead injury is the commonest cause of death from blunt force; the forensic doctor reads the…
- Railway and aviation deathsIn train and air-crash deaths the doctor helps identify the victims, tell whether they were…
- Road traffic injuries: pedestrians, drivers and ridersRoad traffic injuries follow patterns set by the person's role: pedestrian, driver, passenger or…
Procedure
Method
- Range of fire: contact, close and distant shotsRange of fire is estimated from the residues around the entry: burning, soot and stippling; no…
- Suicide or homicide? Reading the scene and the woundsNo single finding separates suicide from homicide: the wounds, the scene, the weapon and the…
- Vital reaction: was the wound made in life?Vital reaction is the set of signs showing an injury happened in life: infiltrated bleeding…
A to Z
Educational content on forensic and legal medicine; not legal advice and no substitute for the technical guides of Colombia's National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences. Laws change: each page links the official text and says when it was last checked. For a real case, follow the guide in force and ask the competent authority.
Representative model, for educational purposes only.