Stab wound

Fish tailing of margins in stab wound is seen with single edged knife.

A knife blade with a double edge will normally produce a symmetrical elliptical wound with both ends pointed; a knife with a single-edged blade may show relative blunting (“fish-tailing”) of one end of the entry slit. However, a single edged blade can produce a wound with two pointed ends, mimicking an injury from a double edged blade.

A bayonet, which has a ridge along the back of the blade with a groove along each side, may produce a slit like an elongated letter “T”.

When a single-edged weapon is used, the surface wound will be triangular or wedge-shaped, and one angle of the wound will be sharp, the other rounded, blunt or squared off. 

Ans. Depth is greater than breadth

Ans. Edge of weapon

Ans. Healing

Ans. is ‘b’ i.e., Width of blade

• Length of the stab wounds is slightly less than the width of the weapon up to which it has been driven inside.
• The deliberate lateral, forward or backward movement of the weapon during its withdrawal from the body tends to widen the wound, and the length will be more than the actual width of the blade.

Ans. c. Stab in abdomen

Hara-kiri is an unusual form of suicide where the abdomen is boldly punctured by a short sword in a sitting position resulting in one large fatal wound, causing sudden evisceration of internal organs resulting in sudden fall of intra­abdominal pressure, followed by collapse, and death.’- Parikh’s 6/e p4.21

A ritual form of suicide, by slashing the abdomen, formerly practiced in Japan, and commanded by the government in the cases of disgraced officials; disembowelment.’

Ans. is ‘d’ i.e., All of the above

• A stab wound is an injury caused by a more or less sharp pointed weapon when it is driven in through the skin and its depth is the greatest dimension.
• The size and shape of the stab wound in the skin is dependent on the type of weapon, cutting surface, edge sharpness, width and shape of weapon, body region stabbed, the angle of withdrawal, the direction of thurst, the movement of blade in body, cleavage direction, movement of person stabbed and the condition of tension or relaxation of skin.
• With a double-edged weapon the shape of the wound will be elliptical or slit like and both angles will be sharp or pointed.
• With a single-edged weapon, the shape will be triangular or wedge shaped and one angle of the wound will be sharp, the other rounded, blunt, or squared-off. Blunt end on the skin may have small splits, so-called “fish-tailing” if the back edge of the blade is heavy.
• A spear or another round object causes a circular wound.