Thanatology
Signs of death, postmortem changes, time since death, the death scene and the medico-legal autopsy.
30 pages
Finding
- Algor mortis: cooling of the bodyAfter death the body loses heat until it matches the surrounding temperature, at a rate that…
- Decomposition: autolysis and putrefactionAfter death tissues are broken down by their own enzymes (autolysis) and by bacteria, mostly…
- Livor mortis (hypostasis)Lividity is the red-purple discolouration of the lowest parts of a dead body, caused by blood…
- Postmortem artefacts: what is not an injuryAn artefact is a change that appears after death or from medical care and can look like an…
- Preservative changes: adipocere, mummification, skeletonisationIn some conditions a body does not fully putrefy: fat turns to a waxy substance (adipocere) or…
- Rigor mortis and cadaveric spasmHours after death the muscles stiffen because the fibres run out of energy, and the stiffness…
Topic
- Biosafety in the autopsy roomThe autopsy carries a real risk of infection, mainly tuberculosis, blood-borne viruses and…
- Cause, mechanism and manner of deathThe cause is the disease or injury that starts the chain, the mechanism is how the body fails…
- Deaths in custody and during restraintEvery death of a person in State custody needs an independent investigation and a full…
- Diagnosing death: the signs of deathDiagnosing death means confirming, by clinical examination, that circulation, breathing and…
- Early postmortem changes: an overviewIn the first hours after death the body cools, blood settles in the lowest parts and the muscles…
- Maternal deaths and deaths after unsafe abortionThe autopsy of a woman who dies in pregnancy, childbirth or the puerperium looks for the exact…
- Sudden cardiac death at autopsyThe autopsy of a sudden cardiac death examines the heart systematically to find the cause and to…
- Sudden natural death outside the heartBrain haemorrhage, pulmonary embolism, epilepsy, asthma, aortic rupture and other diseases also…
- Sudden unexpected death in adults and infantsSudden death is the quick death of an apparently healthy person without an obvious cause; it…
Procedure
- Deaths associated with surgery and anaesthesiaThe autopsy of a patient who dies during or after surgery separates the underlying disease, a…
- ExhumationExhumation is the recovery of a buried body or its remains for an investigation; in Colombia the…
- Special autopsy techniques: air embolism, pneumothorax, neck dissectionSome findings disappear with a routine autopsy, so they must be suspected beforehand and looked…
- The autopsy in a suspected sexual homicideWhen a person may have been sexually assaulted before death, the autopsy must find and preserve…
- The autopsy report and the negative autopsyThe autopsy report describes what was found and interprets it, so that another expert could…
- The death scene: inspección técnica a cadáver (levantamiento)The inspection of the body at the scene is done by the judicial police; the doctor contributes…
- The external examination of the bodyBefore any incision, the whole surface of the body is examined, described and photographed; in…
- The internal examination and the samples to takeThe internal examination opens the body cavities in a set order, examines each organ and takes…
- The medico-legal autopsy: when it is mandatory in ColombiaA medico-legal autopsy is mandatory in violent, suspicious or unexplained deaths, and it is…
- The Minnesota Protocol: investigating potentially unlawful deathsA United Nations manual on how to investigate a death the State may have caused or that occurred…
Method
- Estimating time since deathTime since death is estimated by combining several signs and methods, and it is always given as…
- Forensic entomologyThe insects that colonise a body, and how far they have developed, show the minimum time it has…
- Neonaticide and the question of live birthWhen a newborn is found dead, the autopsy tries to tell whether it was viable and born alive; no…
- Postmortem imaging and virtual autopsyCT and MRI of the body, before or instead of the autopsy, show fractures, gas, projectiles and…
- The molecular autopsy and inherited cardiac diseaseThe molecular autopsy is postmortem genetic testing that looks for an inherited disease when the…
A to Z
Educational content on forensic and legal medicine; not legal advice and no substitute for the technical guides of Colombia's National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences. Laws change: each page links the official text and says when it was last checked. For a real case, follow the guide in force and ask the competent authority.
Representative model, for educational purposes only.