Sudden Death Caused by Positional Asphyxia Related to Forensic and Clinical Medicine
Journal: Journal of Clinical Medicine Research DOI: 10.32629/jcmr.v3i1.707
Abstract
Positional asphyxia refers to a special type of mechanical asphyxia, which can lead to death under severe circumstances. It can be found in clinical practice and medico-legal expertise such as sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) in the sleeping, unexplained sudden death in alcoholics and seniors of weak physiques, as well as violence-related sudden death in special physical position. However, the death cases of positional asphyxia were failed to be given more focuses in clinical practice. Most of the cases associated with positional asphyxia are mainly subject to forensic medical identification, and the death mechanism and the expertise standard have been discussion in forensic medicine. But both clinical medicine or forensic medicine, positional asphyxia can be classified into violence and non-violence, having some associated high-risk factors such as age, temulence, heart disease etc. Therefore, it is very important to correctly identify the causes and related risk factors of positional asphyxia and to make scientific clinical diagnosis and correct forensic experts opinions for correctly judging the cause of death of victims.
Keywords
positional asphyxia, forensic pathology, clinical medicine, sudden death
Full Text
PDF - Viewed/Downloaded: 11 TimesReferences
[2]Bell MD, Rao VJ, Wetli CV, et al. positional asphyxiation in adults. A series of 30 cases from the Dade and Broward County Florida Medical Examiner Offices from 1982 to 1990. Am J Forensic Med Pathol, 1992; 13: 101-107.
[3] Falk J, Riepert T, Iffland R, et al. Death due to unusual position of the body-an explanation for the consequence of reduced venous reflux to the heart. Arch Kriminol, 2004; 213: 102-107.
[4]Reay, D.T., Fligner, C.L., Stilwell, A.D., Arnold, J. positional asphyxia during law enforcement transport. The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, 1992; 13(2): 90-97.
[5]Padosch SA, Schmidt PH, Kröner LU, Madea B. Death due to positional asphyxia under severe alcoholisation: pathophysiologic and forensic considerations. Forensic Sci Int, 2005; 149(1): 67-73.
[6]Cote, A., Bairam, A., Deschenes, M., Hatzakis, G. Sudden infant deaths in sitting devices. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 2008; 93(5): 384-389.
[7]Alberto Amadasi, Michael Tsokos, Claas T Bushmann. Differential diagnosis on discolorations of the skin in a case of suspected positional asphyxia. Forensic Sci Med Pathol, 2019; 15(4): 671-674.
[8]Brogan T, Fligner C L, McLaughlin J F, Feldman K W, Kiesel E L. positional asphyxia in individual with severecerebral palys. Dev med Child Neurol, 1992; 34: 169-173.
[9]Nobuhiro Yukawa, Yasuhisa Seo, Hirokazu Matsuda, Keiichi Takahama. Ashpxia cause by airway compression in one case of neck hyperextension. The Jounal of Research and Practice in Forensic Medicine, 1993; 36: 267-273.
[10]Yasuhiro Aoki, Masayuki Nata, Mikiko Nagae, Kaoru Sagisaka. Discussion the relation with death position and death cause — positional asphxia or sudden death? two cases report. The Jorunal of Research and Practice in Forensic Medicine, 1994; 37: 193-198.
[11]Yasushi Nagasaki, Fumio Moriya, Yoshiaki Hashimoto. Homicide or positionalasphxia? Unusual death of a drunk. The Japanese journal of Forensic Pathlogy, 1996; 2: 2-9.
[12]Zhanyon Wan, Unexpected Death in case of upside down with limbs binding position. The Chinese Jounal of Forensic Medicine, 1994; 9: 229.
[13]Gary M. Vilke Restraint physiology: A review of the literatur. Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine, 2020; 7: 1-6.
[14]Reay DT, Howard JD, Fligner CL, Ward RJ. Effects of positional restraint on oxygen saturation and heart rate following exercise. Am J Forensic Med Pathol, 1988; 9: 16.
[15]Harry J. MacDannald. The Hog-Tie Position and positional asphyxia. www.fightsciences.com/images/HOGTIE_POSITION_AND_POSITIONAL_ASPHYXIA_By_Harry_J._MacDannnald_MD_WWW.FIGHTSCIENCES.COM.PDF.
[16]Madea B. Death in a head-down position. Forensic Sci Int, 1993; 61: 119-132.
[17]Pelosi P, Quintel M, Malbrain MLNG. Effect of intra-abdominal pressure on respiratory mechanics. Acta Clin Belg, 2007; 62: 78-88.
[18]18 Arthur W, Kaye G. The pathophysiology of common causes of syncope. Postgrad Med J, 2000; 76: 750-753.
[19] Lee C, Porter KM. Suspension trauma. Emerg Med J EMJ, 2007; 24: 237-238.
[20]Wetli CV and Fishbain DA. Cocaine-induced psychosis and sudden death in recrrational cocaine users. J Forensic Sci, 1985; 30: 873-880.
[21]Kapoor WN. Diagnostic evaluation of syncope. Am J Med, 1991; 90: 91-106.
[22]Cote, A., Bairam, A., Deschenes, M., Hatzakis, G. Sudden infant deaths in sitting devices. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 2008; 93(5): 384-389.
[23]Bull, M. J., Engle, W. A. Safe transportation of preterm and low birth weight infants at hospital discharge. Pediatrics, 2009; 123(5): 1424-1429.
[24]Hoffman, B. D, Gallardo, A. R, Carlson, K. F. Unsafe from the start: serious misuse of car safety seats at newborn discharge. The Journal of Pediatrics, 2016; 171: 48-54.
[25]Batra, E. K., Midgett, J. D., Moon, R. Y. Hazards associated with sitting and carrying devices for children two years and younger. The Journal of Pediatrics, 167(1): 183-187.
[26]Rachel Y. Moon. SIDS and Other Sleep-Related Infant Deaths: Expansion of Recommendations for a Safe Infant Sleeping Environment. Pediatrics, 2011; 128(5): e1341–e1367.
[27]Belviso M, De Donno A, Vitale L, et al. positional asphyxia: reflection on 2 cases. Am J Forensic Med Pathol, 2003; 24: 292-297.
[28]Benomran FA, Hassan AI. An unusual accidental death from positional asphyxia. Am J Forensic Med Pathol, 2011; 32: 31-34.
[29] Chittaranjan Behera, Karthik Krishna. Fatal positional asphyxia following a fall in bathroom. Medico-legal Journal, 2020; 3(88): 169-171.
Copyright © 2022 Jie Zhang, Lingjie Kong, Zihui Cheng, Liang Wang, Zhe Liu, Yingjie Wang, Yong Yu, Songyue He
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License