ABSTRACT
A wound or injury can best be defined as ‘damage to any part of the body due the application of mechanical force’. Some jurisdictions have a legal definition of a ‘wound’, which usually requires the integrity of the body surface to be breached. As this obviously excludes bruising and damage to deep organs, it is unrealistic in a medical sense, but there is always some legal alternative, such as ‘causing serious bodily harm’, which covers any injury to any tissue or organ. Other jurisdictions grade wounds not by their physical nature, but by the perceived risk to life or health of the victim; this can be an extremely difficult prognostic exercise.
