Penetrating spinal injury inflicted by screwdriver: unusual morphological findings

A 50-year-old female victim died of recurrent pulmonary embolism, 3 months after having received multiple screwdriver stab wounds in the neck and upper spine. Autopsy showed that one stab had penetrated the middle part of the cervical spinal cord and thus caused an incomplete tetraplegia. In the region of the healed spinal cord and the affected meninges, a considerable amount of hair and textile fibres surrounded by foreign body giant cells and elastic fibres of spinal ligament were found, all of which had been carried into the stab canal by the blunt tip of the screwdriver. In addition to the primary clinical findings, this unusual transportation of matter into the depth of the stab canal allowed identification of the murder weapon.