Child abuse suspected with postmortem CT imaging and revealed by following legal autopsy

DOI IR 8 References
  • Suzuki Akihiro
    Department of Emergency Medicine and Intensive Care, Asahikawa Medical College
  • Sugimoto Masaya
    Department of Emergency Medicine and Intensive Care, Asahikawa Medical College
  • Kokita Naohiro
    Department of Emergency Medicine and Intensive Care, Asahikawa Medical College
  • Fujita Satoshi
    Department of Emergency Medicine and Intensive Care, Asahikawa Medical College
  • Goh Kazutomo
    Department of Emergency Medicine and Intensive Care, Asahikawa Medical College
  • Shiono Hiroshi
    Department of Legal Medicine, Asahikawa Medical College
  • Shimizu Keiko
    Department of Legal Medicine, Asahikawa Medical College

Bibliographic Information

Other Title
  • いわゆる死後ＣＴ検査の所見を根拠に司法解剖を行い，死因究明に至った幼児虐待の１例

Search this article

Description

We report a case of child abuse suspected by postmortem computed tomography (PMCT) and revealed by following legal autopsy. A 2-year-old boy with cardiopulmonary arrest was transferred to our hospital. Mother asserted that he bumped his occipital head against the wall and then fainted. The initial hospital electrocardiogram showed asystole. The cause of injury explained by her mother seemed minor, however, cardiac rhythm remained asystole even after 30 minutes of standard cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Although the external investigation of his body indicated no obvious trauma, echocardiogram showed the pericardial fluid collection, which is inexplicable for his mechanism of injury. PMCT was performed and it showed abnormalities in his heart, liver, and spleen. As a consequence of these CT findings, police decided to order a legal autopsy. The autopsy further revealed that he died of bleeding due to pancreatic injury. It also revealed many old subcutaneous hematomas which suggested that the child had suffered from regular abuse. In this case, PMCT was useful as a screening tool which led to legal autopsy.

Journal

References(8)*help

See more

Keywords

Details 詳細情報について

Report a problem

Back to top