[Internal laryngeal hematoma. A contribution to death following blow to the neck]

An 86-year old woman suffered blows with a forearm in a cast against the face and the neck. She was found dead some days later in a sitting position with heap of vomit beneath the corps. Autopsy showed extended haematoma and excoriations of the left side of the face and the neck. The mandibula and the left zygomatic arc were broken, just as the greater horns of the hyoid and the left upper and lower horne of thyroid cartilage. The main finding was a massive haematoma of the inner soft tissues of the larynx with a severe stenosis of the lumen. The haematoma was demonstrated by frontal section of the larynx, an unusual method in routine examination. Since this section was used in the autopsy especially of persons that died by strangulation, little bleedings in the false and true vocal cords were found in some cases.