The medicolegal literature provides many reports on the morphological appearance of stab injuries caused by pieces of broken glass (e.g. splinters). This review focuses on the particular aspect of blow injuries to the head and skull inflicted by glass bottles. Findings from an experimental biomechanical study conducted by the authors as well as 10 case reports are presented and discussed in detail. In order to characterise typical findings and provide valuable guidelines for practical casework, cases of blows to the head with glass bottles that were not followed by any serious injuries are compared to such cases in which the blows resulted in fatal outcome. Combinations of lacerations and incised wounds were encountered in most cases. Interestingly, lacerations were of major severity as opposed to the incised wounds. The latter were, as a rule, superficial. Differences in bottle shape, weight, and filling conditions did not account for any differences of the resulting injuries and the breaking behaviour of the bottles, respectively. Strikingly, even in the cases in which death was attributable to the blow with the glass bottle, the actual cause of death was not related to mechanical damage of bony structures or to brain injury (e.g. comminuted skull fractures or severe cerbral contusions). Here, rather exsanguination from the inflicted lacerations was found to be responsible for fatal outcome. Skull fractures resulting from blows to the head with glass bottles can be considered rare events. Regarding biomechanically relevant factors that are determined by the bottle itself, the minor elasticity of glass, as compared to bone, the filling condition, and the location of impact have to be considered as important.
