TY - JOUR PY - 2022// TI - Electrocution - post-mortem presentations, problems and pitfalls JO - Forensic science, medicine, and pathology A1 - Byard, Roger W. SP - ePub EP - ePub VL - ePub IS - ePub N2 - Deaths due to electrocution occur when there has been passage of an electric current through the body. Lethal mechanisms may involve the heart with ventricular fibrillation, or the respiratory muscles or brainstem respiratory centres with respiratory paralysis/cessation. The size of the current that flows through the body is directly dependent on the potential difference of the circuit and the resistance of the tissues. The majority of deaths are accidental, with suicides being less common and homicides being very rare. Problems arising in the evaluation of cases include situations where electrocution has clearly occurred from the scene findings, but no injuries are detectable at autopsy, or when electrical burns are found at autopsy with no defective equipment/circuitry identified at the death scene.
Language: en
LA - en SN - 1547-769X UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12024-022-00544-8 ID - ref1 ER -