Nihon hōigaku zasshi = The Japanese journal of legal medicine
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Nihon Hoigaku Zasshi · Oct 1992
Case ReportsA fatal case of a single stab wound penetrating the small, narrow atlantoaxial interspace.
A 73-year-old woman was found dead with a small wound on the nape of her neck. The wound was oval in shape, measuring about 0.6 cm in length along the major axis, with a slightly irregular margin. The wound injured the medulla oblongata through the atlantoaxial interspace, and reached the left vertebral artery. ⋯ The wound depth was 5 cm in length, with the direction of the wound canal from posterior-lower right to anterior-upper left. The size and appearance of the wound corresponded to those of the horizontal section of a skewer used by the assailant. Such a fatal case due to a single stabbing of the medullar oblongata by the chance gliding of a skewer through the small, narrow atlantoaxial interspace is considered to be exceptional.