Lumbosacral transitional vertebra: Clinical and forensic implications

The identification of skeletal remains is one of the classic problems faced by forensic experts.Congenital and acquired malformations can prove to be an important tool for identification, provided antemortem records are available. A lumbosacral transitional vertebra is one such rare congenital anomaly that has clinical and medicolegal implications. We report a case of unilateral lumbosacral transitional vertebra, detected during medicolegal examination of skeletal remains that were recovered from a forested area in coastal Karnataka, India. The congenital anomaly of the transitional vertebra helped in the forensic identification of the deceased.