Back to Search
Start Over
Use of postmortem computed tomography to reveal an intraoral gunshot injuries in a charred body
- Source :
- Legal Medicine. 13:286-288
- Publication Year :
- 2011
- Publisher :
- Elsevier BV, 2011.
-
Abstract
- A 53-year-old man was found dead after a fire at his residence had been extinguished. Although a pistol was recovered beside the body, external examination was unable to indicate any gunshot wound because of severe charring of the body. Postmortem computed tomography (CT) scan performed prior to autopsy suggested an entrance gunshot wound in the posterior pharynx with loss of soft tissue and an internal bullet path through the right anterior and posterior parts of the occipital bone. Autopsy revealed an entrance gunshot wound with hemorrhage in the soft tissue of the posterior pharynx, massive contusion of the right occipital lobe, and subarachnoid hemorrhage in the right temporal lobe, both occipital lobes and the superior surface of the left cerebellar hemisphere, thus being consistent with the findings of postmortem CT. A carboxyhemoglobin concentration of 5% in blood from the cadaver was consistent with the lack of soot deposition from the larynx to the bronchus. These observations confirmed that death had been caused by an intraoral gunshot resulting in severe brain damage, before the body had been burned.
- Subjects :
- Male
Larynx
medicine.medical_specialty
Tomography Scanners, X-Ray Computed
Subarachnoid hemorrhage
Poison control
Autopsy
Pathology and Forensic Medicine
Cadaver
medicine
Humans
Mouth
business.industry
Occipital bone
Soft tissue
Anatomy
Middle Aged
medicine.disease
humanities
Surgery
Radiography
Issues, ethics and legal aspects
medicine.anatomical_structure
Wounds, Gunshot
Gunshot wound
Burns
business
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 13446223
- Volume :
- 13
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Legal Medicine
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....74d0aae0d13119b27f026eaf14e0fd84
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.legalmed.2011.07.004