Puncture and stab wounds

What it is

A puncture wound (herida punzante) is made by a pointed object without an edge (awl, screwdriver, ice pick); a stab wound (herida cortopunzante) by an object with a point and an edge (knife, dagger). Both are deeper than long: a small skin wound can hide serious injury to vessels, heart, lung or viscera. Its shape on the skin suggests the weapon (single or double edge) but does not identify it with certainty, because the skin retracts and the weapon moves during an attack.

How to tell it apart

• Versus an incised wound: an incised wound is longer than deep.
• Versus a gunshot entry wound: no abrasion ring and no firearm residues.
• Versus a laceration: clean edges and no tissue bridges.
• A single wound fits an accident better; several wounds raise assault or self-injury, without concluding from the number alone.

How to recognise it

• A slit-like, elongated or triangular skin wound, shorter than the depth of the track.
• Sharp ends (edge) or blunt ends (back of the blade); sometimes a "fishtail" end.
• A V-shaped notch on one edge from twisting of the weapon or movement of the victim.
• A track with a direction (front to back, downwards, right to left) and the organs injured.

How it forms

• Once skin resistance is overcome, the point goes in with little force; the edge enlarges the wound.
• Withdrawal at another angle lengthens the wound or makes a notch.
• Compression of tissues (abdomen, chest) can make the track longer than the blade.

Step by step

1. Number each wound and describe it separately.
2. Measure the length with the edges brought together and record shape, ends, notches and surrounding bruising.
3. Locate it by anatomical landmarks and distances (for example, from the midline and from the heel).
4. Record the direction and depth of the track and the organs injured, from surgery or imaging.
5. Compare the defects in the clothing with the wounds.

Next step: what to do and document

• Treat as an emergency; if there is time, photograph with a scale before surgery and record the track and injured organs in the operative note.
• Number and describe each wound, including small ones on the hands and forearms (defence).
• Do not wash the clothing or cut through its holes; air-dry it, pack it in paper and hand it over with chain of custody, like any weapon or object.
• Start the reporting pathway and write the patient's account in their own words.
• Under Law 906 of 2004 (art. 255), health staff are responsible for collecting, preserving and handing physical evidence to the authority.
• Official text checked on 2026-11-05 at funcionpublica.gov.co.

Common mistakes

• Discharging a patient with a small chest or abdominal wound without ruling out internal injury.
• Inferring the exact blade width from the skin length of the wound.
• Cutting clothing through the weapon holes.
• Writing "multiple wounds" without counting or describing them.

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Elsewhere in DurgiPedia

• Mandatory reporting: public health, violence and abuse

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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.

Sources: Trauma Forensics in Blunt and Sharp Force Injuries (Journal of the West African College of Surgeons (PMC), 2022); Fatal and nonfatal sharp force injuries to the limbs: a study of forensic autopsies in Sweden (2010–2019) (International Journal of Legal Medicine (PMC), 2025); Ley 906 de 2004, Código de Procedimiento Penal (Función Pública, Gestor Normativo, 2004).

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