Background: Low velocity penetrating head injury (PHI) is uncommon. PHI due to a stone is rare and we report a case series with a systematic review of the literature.
Methods: We included 4 patients from this series and 21 patients from the literature review. They are grouped into 7 patients of type I injury and 18 patients of type II injury based on the mode of injury. Type I injury is when the stone hits the head and type II injury is when the head falls on the stone and gets injured.
Results: The mean age was 22.6 years and 84% were males in the total 25 patients. The commonest cause of injury was road traffic accident (40%) and the commonest site of injury was the frontal region (60%). There was a statistically significant difference noted in the clinical grade (GCS) and outcome (p=0.03) between the two groups.
Conclusions: From the review of the literature, two types of PHI by stones can be concluded. Type I injuries were less common, more severe in the coma scale, injury grade, and had poor outcome compared to type II injuries.