Citation

Ebert LC, Schön CA, Ruder TD, Thali MJ, Hatch GM. Am. J. Forensic Med. Pathol. 2011; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

From the Center of Forensic Imaging and Virtopsy, Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1097/PAF.0b013e3181efbc24

PMID

20683241

Abstract

Horse kicks are rare incidents-especially, if they end in fatality. In this case, a 13-year-old girl collapsed 3 minutes after sustaining a kick to the chest from a pony. Resuscitation attempts were unsuccessful. Postmortem computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging were performed before autopsy.Imaging revealed a 3-cm long laceration of the left ventricle and a large pericardial effusion. Using segmentation techniques, the amount of blood inside the pericardium was determined. These findings correlated well with the autopsy findings. Pericardial tamponade was determined at autopsy to be the cause of death.Postmortem imaging may prove useful for the diagnosis of these types of injury, but further studies are needed to document accuracy.

Language: en