Causes of Death Accompanying by Soft Tissue Neck Hemorrhage

Background: Generally, soft tissue hemorrhages in anterior part of the neck are attributed to the neck compression or trauma and suspicion goes more to homicidal death than suicide. Although artificial posterior neck hemorrhages are described as Prinsloo-Gordon phenomenon in cadavers with posterior lividity, studies conducted on such hemorrhages in the anterior and lateral compartments are rare. This study intends to investigate causes of death accompanied by soft tissue neck hemorrhages in different compartments of neck. Method: In this retrospective case series, between March 2008 and 2009, cadavers whose autopsies indicated soft tissue neck hemorrhages and the lividity was dominant in posterior, were evaluated according to the cause of death and anatomical and histological locations of hemorrhage. Results: Among 86 cases of neck hemorrhage, 72.1% (n=62) were male. Direct neck trauma, hanging, strangulation, chocking and positional asphyxia constituted 50% (n=43) of them, 40.7% (n=35) were non-asphyxial, non-traumatic deaths such as natural diseases, drug and CO poisoning, electrocution and drowning, and 9.3% (n=8) were unknown. 65.1% (n=28) of non-traumatic, non-asphyxial cases bore anterior or lateral neck hemorrhages. Conclusion: The considerable prevalence of soft neck tissue hemorrhages in non asphyxial deaths with no history of neck trauma and the location of such hemorrhages in anterior and lateral sides of neck, lead the investigators to pay more attention to interpret these hemorrhages and determining the mode and cause of death.