Pathological Results in Cadavers Suspected to Electrical Injury Referred to the Forensic Medicine Center of Tehran From 2006 to 2016

Abstract

The electrical injury is a common cause of death needing forensic assessments. In these cases, the histopathological assessment is a routine practice. The aim of this study was to determine the pathological results in cadavers suspected to electrical injury referred to the Forensic Medicine Center of Tehran, Iran. In this observational descriptive-comparative study, 745 consecutive cadavers suspected to electrical injury referred to the Forensic Medicine Center of Tehran from 2006 to 2016 were enrolled; also, the histopathological findings among them were determined and compared according to other variables. The results of this study demonstrated that 44 patients (86.3%) of those suspected to have an electrical injury and 101 patients (92.7%) of those with definite electrical injury had positive pathological results, showing a statistically significant difference (P<0.05). The non-routine histopathology assessment is useful and would develop positive results in more than 80% of the cases.

Keywords

• pathology
• forensic medicine
• electrical injury