Two patients with unusual intracranial foreign bodies are presented. Intracranial injuries produced by a piece of screwdriver as a wounding agent have not yet been reported in the literature. In one of our two cases we had to deal with homicide and in another with accidental self-inflicted injury. Both patients died, 5 and 14 days, respectively, after successful removal of the foreign body. In both cases death was due to brain ischaemia and the resulting oedema secondary to arterial injury.