ABSTRACT
Patients with penetrating head injury, where the skull and dura mater are perforated by a missile or missile fragments, form a relatively distinct population of head-injured subjects, with the pathology of the resultant brain lesion being quite different from that found in the more common 'blunt' head injury. Penetrating head injury, even when it is accompanied by significant brain damage and blood loss, may in some cases present in a dramatic fashion, with the patient fully conscious and able to narrate in detail the circumstances of the injury. This is in sharp contrast to even minor forms of closed head injury where there may be complete amnesia for events surrounding the injury. Few formal comparisons have been made between memory functioning in patients with penetrating head injury and those associated with other disease states. Patients with penetrating head injury who display both verbal and non-verbal memory deficits have usually incurred bilateral or multifocal lesions.
