A Wormian Bone, Mimicking an Entry Gunshot Wound of the Skull, in an Anthropological Specimen

• Autor(a) principal: Machado, MP
• Data de Publicação: 2016
• Outros Autores: Simões, MP, Gamba, TO, Flores, IL, Haiter Neto, F, Durão, C, Daruge Júnior, E, Cunha, E
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.26/14157
• topic: Medicina Forense; Ferimentos e Lesões; Fracturas Cranianas; Ferimentos por Arma de Fogo; Antropologia Forense

Wormian bones (WB) are irregular small cranial ossicles found along suture lines and fontanels. In Brazil, gunshot wounds to the skull are quite common in young individuals. Nevertheless, as far as we know, this is the first report of a WB giving an erroneous aspect of gunshot entrance due to its displacement position. The present manuscript describes the case of a Brazilian young man who died due to ballistic trauma, where a gaping bony defect on the right side of the skull was thought to be the exit wound of an injury related to the destruction found on the left side, highly suggestive of firearm injury. Thus, this case study has brought to light similarities between a traumatic lesion and an orifice of a WB, with emphasis on differential diagnosis during routine anthropological examinations.