LEAD ABSORPTION FROM BULLETS LODGED IN TISSUES

Abstract

Whether bullets remaining in tissues can give rise to lead poisoning has long been a subject of discussion. The great body of opinion, first expressed by Paré, holds that bullets in tissues will not cause intoxication, but there have also been proponents of the opposite point of view, and cases of plumbism from retained bullets have been reported from time to time, the earliest record being that of Bronvin¹in 1867. Among the more than fifty publications on this subject there are reports of forty cases in which the clinical diagnosis of plumbism resulting from retained bullets has been made.² The entire assumption of the occurrence of plumbism from retained bullets being dependent on the occurrence of clinically identifiable lead poisoning, it would seem desirable at the outset to state the criteria on which my associates and I base such a diagnosis. They are the existence of (1)