Morphological signs of fatal acute general cold injury in the air

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Cold trauma is one of the leading causes of violent death in the Russian Federation due to the peculiarities of its geographical location. The pathophysiological processes occurring in the human body during hypothermia remain insufficiently studied despite a large number of studies, and quantitative characteristics of diagnostic signs most often used in expert practice are not precise. AIMS: To clarify and supplement the complex characteristic and pathognomonic macro- and microscopic signs of fatal acute general cold injury MATERIAL AND METHODS: Morphological signs of death from general hypothermia were analyzed based on the materials of forensic medical examinations concerning 460 corpses of people who died from hypothermia in the air using descriptive statistics, content-, and formal-logical methods. RESULTS: The macro- and microscopic signs of cold injury have been clarified, supplemented, and systematized. A quantitative assessment of the frequency of occurrence (detectability) of diagnostically significant signs, most often used in expert practice, is given. The main signs of death from general hypothermia include ischemia of the shell in combination with fullness and edema of the core of the body, blood thickening with coagulations, micro- and macrothrombosis with hemorrhages into internal organs (brain, brain membranes, heart, lungs, kidneys, stomach, etc.), spasm (rigor mortis) of various muscle groups, and trophic and necrotic changes in internal organs. CONCLUSION: The revealed signs of death from general acute deep hypothermia in the air expand the existing ideas about the complex characters and pathognomonic signs in this type of injury and allows reliable differential diagnosis of the cause of death during the forensic examination of a corpse.

Keywords

• accidental hypothermia
• frostbite
• hypothermia
• forensic medical examination
• cold injury