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Animal‐Related Fatalities—Part II: Characteristic Autopsy Findings and Variable Causes of Death Associated with Envenomation, Poisoning, Anaphylaxis, Asphyxiation, and Sepsis
Author(s) -
Bury Danielle,
Langlois Neil,
Byard Roger W.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of forensic sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.715
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1556-4029
pISSN - 0022-1198
DOI - 10.1111/j.1556-4029.2011.01932.x
Subject(s) - envenomation , autopsy , anaphylaxis , medicine , sepsis , poison control , medical emergency , injury prevention , occupational safety and health , forensic pathology , suicide prevention , emergency medicine , venom , pathology , surgery , immunology , allergy , biology , fishery
In addition to blunt and sharp trauma, animal‐related fatalities may result from envenomation, poisoning, anaphylaxis, asphyxiation, and sepsis. Although the majority of envenomation deaths are caused by hornets, bees, and wasps, the mechanism of death is most often anaphylaxis. Envenomation resulting from the injection of a poison or toxin into a victim occurs with snakes, spiders, and scorpions on land. Marine animal envenomation may result from stings and bites from jellyfish, octopus, stonefish, cone fish, stingrays, and sea snakes. At autopsy, the findings may be extremely subtle, and so a history of exposure is required. Poisoning may also occur from ingesting certain fish, with three main forms of neurotoxin poisoning involving ciguatera, tetrodotoxin ingestion, and paralytic shellfish poisoning. Asphyxiation may follow upper airway occlusion or neck/chest compression by animals, and sepsis may follow bites. Autopsy analysis of cases requires extensive toxinological, toxicological, and biochemical analyses of body fluids.