Post mortem artefacts that mimic deliberate physical violence and ante mortem lesions – revisited

Post mortem artefact is any change caused or a feature introduced in a body after death that is likely to lead to misinterpretation of medico legally significant ante mortem findings (1). Reddy states all events that happen after death which may simulate ante mortem injuries can be grouped together under the heading of post mortem artifacts (2). These artifacts are not related to actual pathophysiological mechanism of death and often lead to misinterpretation of medico legal important ante mortem findings which may be responsible for the cause, manner and the mode of death. Artefacts are commonly observed at autopsies which present in a form of an injury, post mortem change, pathological lesion, histological finding, bio-chemical finding, histochemical finding or as an error in photography, radiography, ultrasound and other ancillary investigations. It is important to differentiate ante mortem injuries from the postmortem artefacts, keeping in mind the different changes which take place after the death. Lack of ability to differentiate ante mortem injuries from the post mortem artefacts may lead to incorrect assessment of time since death, wrong cause of death, miscarriage of justice, and waste of time and resources due to misleading findings (3). Objective of this paper is to highlight certain types of artefacts authors during over 5000 autopsy examinations and discuss medico-legal issues of their interpretation and differential diagnosis with reference to available literature sources.