[Gunshot wounds--homicide, suicide or accident?]

Gunshot residues on the hand are an important evidence of shooting. Different methods for sampling gunshot residues from the hands are presented and critically analyzed. The topographic methods-adhesive film and polyvinyl alcohol technique (PVAL)-have serious advantages over the cumulative methods like tape-lift or cotton swab. Case examples demonstrate the limited interpretation of results with cumulative methods. Negative results of tape-lifts or cotton swabs can also be explained by the presence of blood or dirt, positive results however don't prove shooting. The sampling method with the highest gain of gunshot residues is the PVAL technique which takes about 2 hours of sampling traces. Therefore PVAL is mostly applied post mortem. PVAL shows the distribution of gunshot residues also on bloody hands and is a powerful instrument for the reconstruction of the firing position. But the final differentiation between homicide, suicide or accident is not only based on gunshot residues, but requires a complex analysis of all findings in a case (scene, blood traces, autopsy, shot range).