Intracranial and chest bullets retained for 35 years: 'Luck's always to blame'

Abstract

Head gunshot injures are usually fatal. Elderly patients may have survived penetrating head injuries, since old bullets with lower velocity produce much less damage to brain tissue. We report a case of elderly male patient with mild head injury due to accidentally fall. Patient died a few hours after admission to Emergency Department. Autopsy finding showed one strayed projectile in the posterior horn of left lateral ventricle and one in the soft tissue of right VIII intercostal space. Later we obtained information that patient suffered multiple gunshot wounds about 35 years earlier. However, the cause of death was deterioration of long-term and severe hypertensive and atherosclerotic heart disease.