Medicolegal Investigation of the Cause of Death: Sudden Death in Adult and Infants

, Jin Choe

Original Article

Korean Journal of Legal Medicine 1987;11(2):58-60.

Department of Pathology, Catholic University Medical College, Seoul 135, Korea

Abstract

An important and often one of the most difficult tasks of a pathologist is the investigation of the cause of death. The causes of death may be grouped according to the autopsy findings. 1. Deaths due to natural causes. Group 1: where a lesion is found at autopsy, which is incompatible with life. Group 2: where a lesion is found at autopsy, which is known to be compatible with continued life. 2. Deaths due to non-natural causes Group 3: where a lesion IS found at autopsy, which is incompatible with life. Group 4: where a lesion is found at autopsy, which may have caused death or which is also known to be compatible with continued life. 3. Deaths due to obscure causes Group 5: where no lesion is found at autopsy or if a lesion is found it is of a minimal or indefinite nature. In this section an account is given some of the more important obscure or uncommon causes of death. Some of the conditions described in the subsection are as follows. 1. Obscure causes of death from natural causes 2. Obscure causes of death from non-natural causes 3. Other obscure deaths from non-natural causes