[Forensic medical expertise of the stab wounds: the current state-of-the art]

This review of special literature encompasses the publications on the injuries inflicted by piercing objects. The results of analysis of these materials indicate that both the mechanisms of formation and the morphological features of stab wounds and damages to the clothes are studied perfectly well. Their shape and morphological patterns are shown to be dependent on the size, shape, and cross-section area of the great variety of the piercing objects. However, investigations carried out thus far did not take into consideration the formation of the signs of skin plastic deformation, such as edge portions of borderline thickening, stretching of epidermis over the walls, transformation of the epidermal network pattern into longitudinal folding, etc. It is concluded that further studies are necessary to better characterize injuries inflicted by piercing objects differing in the sharpness and the shape of cross section and thereby to obtain a deeper insight in the morphological features. It can be expected that such studies will provide a basis for the development of criteria for the individual and intra-group expert identification of the traumatic agents.