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Forensic medicine spotters for NEET PG: wounds, weapons and time since death

Forensic medicinePublished · Recallab

Forensic medicine spotters reward the candidate who knows where to look: a wound's margin, its site, its floor, what lies around it.

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Most forensic questions in NEET PG are a picture and a name. The pictures repeat: a stab or chop wound, a gunshot wound in section, a body at some point after death. Each has one feature that settles it, and once you know that feature the marks come quickly. Below are eight real Recallab MentorQs, each built on a figure. Try each before you open the answer.

Before you name anything: three questions

  1. Where is it? The site of an injury often matters more than its size: the palm, the back, the table of the skull.
  2. What is the margin doing? Turned in or out, clean or bruised, collared or not.
  3. What is around it or beneath it? Soot, powder marks, a crust, a groove in the bone.

Wounds and weapons

Recallab example 1 · defence wounds

Two people examined after separate assaults with a sharp-edged weapon are drawn in the figure with their injuries marked. Person 1's injuries were sustained while warding the weapon off. What marks them as that?

Look first: look at where the cuts are, not how many there are.

Two standing men. Person 1, seen from the front, holds one forearm across his face with the palm outward, and has cuts on the palm, the web of the thumb and the little-finger border of the forearm. Person 2, seen from behind, has a single cut high on the upper back and none on his hands or forearms.View larger ↗⤢ Tap to enlarge
Recallab question 56430. Two assaults, the cuts marked.
  1. AA site beyond the person’s own reach
  2. BCuts on the palm and ulnar forearm
  3. CThe greater number of cuts
  4. DA cut high on the back
Show the answer and explanation

Answer: B. Cuts on the palm and ulnar forearm

Rule: a defence wound lies where the victim put a surface between the weapon and the body. A person facing a blade raises a forearm across the face and grasps or pushes at the weapon: grasping cuts the palm and the web of the thumb, and warding it off cuts the little-finger border of the forearm.

Why the closest rival loses: the number of cuts (C) carries no weight; a single cut on the ulnar forearm is a defence wound. A site beyond the victim's own reach (A) argues against self-infliction, not for defence, and a cut on the back (D) is taken from behind.

Recallab question 56430 · Forensic Medicine › Mechanical injuries · reference: Reddy, The Essentials of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology

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Recallab example 2 · two wound sections

Two wounds from an assault are drawn in cross-section in the figure. What type of wound is wound 2?

Look first: check the margins for bruising and the floor for bone.

Two wound cross-sections through skin, fat and bone. Wound 1 is a narrow clean cut through skin and fat with unbruised margins and intact bone. Wound 2 is a deep wedge-shaped gap with clean edges, bluish bruising along both margins and a smooth groove cut into the bone at its floor.View larger ↗⤢ Tap to enlarge
Recallab question 58030. Two wounds in section, down to the bone.
  1. AA chop wound
  2. BA split laceration
  3. CA stab wound
  4. DAn incised wound
Show the answer and explanation

Answer: A. A chop wound

Rule: a chop wound is a sharp edge with weight behind it. Wound 2 has clean straight edges, so an edge made it; its margins are bruised and it carries on into the bone as a clean groove, which a light blade does not do. That is an axe or a chopper.

Why the closest rival loses: an incised wound (D) is wound 1: clean, unbruised and stopping short of bone. A split laceration (B) would have tissue bridges and a crushed margin, and a stab wound (C) is deeper than it is long.

Recallab question 58030 · Forensic Medicine › Medicolegal aspects of wounds · reference: Reddy, The Essentials of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology

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Recallab example 3 · age of a wound

Four wounds are drawn in the figure at one scale as they appeared at examination. Which wound is about a week old?

Look first: read the crust first, then the base beneath it.

Four wounds numbered 1 to 4, each seen from the surface and in section. 1: a fresh gap with clot and inflammatory cells. 2: a firm attached crust with a few new vessels. 3: a crust lifting at its edges over a base full of new vessels, with new surface cells growing in from each side. 4: no crust, a pale band of dense fibres under intact skin.View larger ↗⤢ Tap to enlarge
Recallab question 55128. Four wounds at four stages of healing.
  1. AWound 4
  2. BWound 1
  3. CWound 3
  4. DWound 2
Show the answer and explanation

Answer: C. Wound 3

Rule: granulation tissue filling the base, with the crust separating at the edges, is the picture at about a week. Wound 3 shows both, and new surface cells are growing in from each side.

Why the closest rival loses: wound 2 (D) has a crust that is still firmly attached, with only early vessels: two to three days. Wound 1 (B) is the first day, and wound 4 (A) is a scar, weeks to months old. An age is always given as a range, never a date.

Recallab question 55128 · Forensic Medicine › Injuries and trauma · reference: Reddy, The Essentials of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology

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Firearm wounds

Recallab example 4 · entry and exit

Two gunshot wound cross sections from a distant shot are drawn in the figure. What about the margin of diagram 1 marks it as the entry wound?

Look first: look at which way the skin edge is turned, and what rings it.

Two gunshot wounds in cross-section through skin, fat and muscle. Diagram 1: the skin margin is turned inward along the track, with a red ring labelled abrasion collar around the opening. Diagram 2: a larger, ragged opening with the margin turned outward and no collar.View larger ↗⤢ Tap to enlarge
Recallab question 56231. Two wounds from one distant shot.
  1. ALarger and more ragged
  2. BBurnt and blackened
  3. CEverted with no abrasion collar
  4. DInverted with an abrasion collar
Show the answer and explanation

Answer: D. Inverted with an abrasion collar

Rule: an inverted margin with an abrasion collar marks an entry at any range. The bullet punches the skin inward and rubs its edge as it passes. Soot and powder marks depend on range, which is why a distant shot has neither.

Why the closest rival loses: everted with no collar (C) is diagram 2, the exit; nothing rubs the skin from inside. A larger, ragged hole (A) also points to an exit, and burning (B) needs a close shot.

Recallab question 56231 · Forensic Medicine › Injuries and ballistics · reference: Reddy, The Essentials of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology

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Recallab example 5 · range of fire

Four gunshot wounds from four bodies are drawn in cross-section in the figure, lettered W to Z. Two of them show scattered punctate marks in the skin around the wound. Which of those two was fired from the greater range?

Look first: find the two with punctate marks first, then see which one also has soot.

Four gunshot wounds in section, lettered W to Z. W: a star-shaped torn wound inside a muzzle imprint. X: a round wound with a smudge of soot and scattered punctate marks. Y: the same punctate marks with no soot. Z: a plain round wound with an abraded margin only.View larger ↗⤢ Tap to enlarge
Recallab question 56727. Four gunshot wounds at four ranges.
  1. ASection X
  2. BSection W
  3. CSection Y
  4. DSection Z
Show the answer and explanation

Answer: C. Section Y

Rule: soot travels a shorter distance than the powder grains that tattoo the skin. X and Y both have punctate marks, but only X has soot, so Y was fired from further away.

Why the closest rival loses: X (A) has soot as well, so it is nearer. W (B) is a contact wound, with a muzzle imprint and a torn star-shaped margin, and Z (D) has no punctate marks at all: the most distant of the four, but not one of the two the question asks about.

Recallab question 56727 · Forensic Medicine › Injuries and ballistics · reference: Reddy, The Essentials of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology

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Recallab example 6 · skull bevelling

Two bullet holes from one skull are drawn in the figure in cross section through the vault. Hole A is the entry wound. On what feature does that rest?

Look first: find which table carries the crater, then ask which way the bullet was going.

Two pieces of skull vault in section, outer table up, lettered A and B. A: a small clean hole in the outer table widening into a crater at the inner table. B: a small clean hole in the inner table widening into a crater at the outer table.View larger ↗⤢ Tap to enlarge
Recallab question 55627. Two bullet holes from one skull.
  1. AThe crater is on the outer table
  2. BIts clean opening faces inwards
  3. CThe crater is on the inner table
  4. DIt is the larger opening
Show the answer and explanation

Answer: C. The crater is on the inner table

Rule: a bullet bevels the table it leaves. It punches a clean hole in the first plate of bone it strikes and chips out a cone as it leaves. Hole A is clean outside and cratered inside, so the bullet was travelling inwards: an entry.

Why the closest rival loses: a crater on the outer table (A) is hole B, an exit. A clean opening facing inwards (B) also describes an exit, and on the outer surface the entry is the smaller opening, not the larger (D).

Recallab question 55627 · Forensic Medicine › Injuries and ballistics · reference: Reddy, The Essentials of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology

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Time since death

Recallab example 7 · rigor mortis

A body is drawn in the figure at four times after death, with the muscle groups that have stiffened shaded at each stage. What change inside the muscle fibre causes the stiffening?

Look first: follow the shading from drawing 1 to drawing 4 before you think about the cell.

One body drawn four times, numbered 1 to 4, with stiffened muscles shaded: 1, the eyelids and jaw; 2, adding the neck and chest; 3, the trunk and upper limbs; 4, the whole body. An inset shows actin and myosin in a muscle fibre beside a nearly empty energy store.View larger ↗⤢ Tap to enlarge
Recallab question 55830. Rigor spreading from face to feet.
  1. ALoss of acetylcholine at the end plate
  2. BCalcium leaving the fibre
  3. CDepletion of ATP
  4. DAccumulation of lactic acid
Show the answer and explanation

Answer: C. Depletion of ATP

Rule: ATP is needed to release actin from myosin, not to bind them. As ATP runs out after death the cross-bridges lock and cannot let go, which is rigidity. It spreads from the small muscles of the face to the limbs (Nysten's rule), and passes off in the same order.

Why the closest rival loses: lactic acid (D) does build up, but it is not what locks the filaments; the old acid theory gave way to the ATP explanation. Rigor needs no nerve signal (A), and calcium leaks into the fibre after death rather than leaving it (B).

Recallab question 55830 · Forensic Medicine › Postmortem changes · reference: Reddy, The Essentials of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology

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Recallab example 8 · putrefaction

A body recovered after several days in a warm climate is drawn in the figure, with a cutaway of the abdominal cavity and a timeline of the changes beside it. Which postmortem change does this appearance belong to?

Look first: read the timeline under the body: what comes before this stage, and what after?

A body lying on its back with a swollen face, protruding tongue and a markedly distended abdomen; a cutaway shows gas-filled bowel. Below, a timeline of three small bodies: an earlier stage with branching marbled veins, this stage, bloated, and a later stage with blistered, peeling skin.View larger ↗⤢ Tap to enlarge
Recallab question 56931. A body after several days in the heat.
  1. AAlgor mortis
  2. BRigor mortis
  3. CPutrefaction
  4. DCadaveric spasm
Show the answer and explanation

Answer: C. Putrefaction

Rule: gas from putrefaction is trapped in closed spaces, and it is that gas that bloats the body. It distends the bowel and the abdomen, pushes the tongue out between the lips and swells the face. Bloating comes after the green discolouration and marbling, and before the skin blisters and slips.

Why the closest rival loses: rigor mortis (B) stiffens muscle but makes no gas. Algor mortis (A) is cooling, and cadaveric spasm (D) is an instant stiffening at the moment of death.

Recallab question 56931 · Forensic Medicine › Postmortem changes · reference: Reddy, The Essentials of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology

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The spotter routine

If you seeLook first atIt usually settles
Cuts on a living personWhere they areDefence or not
A wound in sectionMargin bruising, the floor, the boneIncised, chop, laceration or stab
A healing woundThe crust, then the baseIts age, as a range
A gunshot woundMargin turned in or out; collar; soot; powder marksEntry or exit, and the range
A bullet hole in boneWhich table is crateredThe direction of fire
A body after deathHow far stiffening or decomposition has goneThe time since death

More worked figures: six ECG strips, six biostatistics charts, six pharmacology graphs, six microbiology and pathology spotters, six eye and ENT spotters, six anatomy cross-sections and ten NEET PG image questions. For a fuller reading of any question you get wrong, ask for a Professor’s take: see Meet MentorQs.

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Drawn from questions #56430, #58030, #55128, #56231, #56727, #55627, #55830, #56931 in the Recallab bank, each with its own verified answer and current-edition reference. Last reviewed 26 September 2026.