Gunshot wound to the head with full recovery.
A 28-year-old man was shot in the back of the head at close range by a robber who then locked him in a room assuming that he was dead. The man was discovered 2 days later. The entrance wound of the bullet was in the left occipital region and it passed into the periphery of the right temporal lobe, where it lodged. The man was transferred to a rehabilitation centre 3 weeks later in relatively good health with only slight general EEG changes. The mild clinical course in this case is attributable to two major factors: firstly, no important brain structures were injured, and secondly, the kinetic energy of the silver-tip hollow-point bullet was probably rather low. Three years after the incident, the man still has slight sensory disturbances in the fingers of the left hand and left-sided homonymous hemianopia. He is now working again at his old profession (managing director) and the projectile is still lodged in the right temporal lobe.
Rothschild
M A
MA
Institute of Legal Medicine, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. rothschild@medizin.fu-berlin.de
Schneider
V
V
D000328:Adult; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005554:Forensic Medicine; D020197:Head Injuries, Penetrating / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011859:Radiography; D013997:Time Factors; D014948:Wounds, Gunshot / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery