Subcutaneous injection of elemental mercury with distant skin lesions.

BACKGROUND

Mercury poisoning presents a variety of clinical pictures depending on chemical structure, amount absorbed, total mercury burden, and individual factors. Distant skin lesions, after subcutaneous injection of metallic mercury, have not been previously described.

CASE REPORT: We present a homicidal, subcutaneous injection of mercury resulting in widespread skin lesions, remote from the radiologically visible mercury. The lesions appeared at 40 days and began to clear at 6 months after the injection.