Aortic Intimal Staining In Fresh Water Drowning – A Case Series

There is usually a suspicion on the cause of death whenever a body is recovered from water. There are no pathognomonic findings to indicate the diagnosis of drowning at autopsy. The diagnosis is based on the circumstances of the death and various nonspecific anatomical findings. It is one of the most difficult modes of death to prove at postmortem. Fresh water drowning brings about hemodilution and hemolysis; which in turn stains the intima of the aortic root. The present study was undertaken to know the importance of this phenomenon in fresh water drowning. A total of ten cases were studied and the study group was divided into group A and group B. Group A consists of five drowning cases and Group B consists of five control cases other than drowning with similar post mortem interval. Aortic intimal staining was demonstrated in all cases of drowning.