title: Unusual craniocerebral injury caused by a pneumatic nail gun.
abstract: A man was found unconscious near a ladder in a house. After resuscitation he was brought to a hospital and X-rays of the skull showed that two 12-cm long nails had completely penetrated the cranial cavity. The nails were operatively removed and after treatment for 5 weeks, the patient was transferred to a rehabilitation centre with a decreasing hemiparesis on the left side and general deterioration and then, after an attempted suicide to a psychiatric hospital. The perforating cranio-cerebral injury from a pneumatic nail gun known to reach only low muzzle velocities is a very unusual finding.
authors.affiliation: Department of Legal Medicine, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Universitätsstrasse 22, 91054 Erlangen, Germany. Horst.Bock@recht.med.uni-erlangen.de
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bock
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Neu
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Betz
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Seidl
mesh_terms: D000062:Accidents, Occupational; D000328:Adult; D003252:Construction Materials; D005547:Foreign Bodies / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery; D005554:Forensic Medicine; D020197:Head Injuries, Penetrating / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011859:Radiography; D013406:Suicide, Attempted