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Skin injuries in forensic histopathology: a descriptive study

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Abstract

Histopathology is commonly used in forensic medicine. Only few studies are available in the literature about the correlation between skin wounds histopathology and survival time or other medicolegal data. The aim of this study was to illustrate the usefulness of histopathological analysis of skin wounds in forensic daily practice and to evaluate its correlation with the clinical and police investigation data. In this single-center, retrospective, and descriptive study, we included 198 forensic pathology cases, from the files of the Legal Medicine and Biopathology Departments of the University Hospital of Nancy, with a total of 554 skin samples. Basing on the police investigations (n = 43), the median survival time between the main related trauma and death was 83 min. The histopathological analysis concluded to 2% of post-mortem lesions (absence of hemorrhage) and 55% of perimortem or undetermined lesions (hemorrhage without inflammation); 8% of the lesions had an estimated time interval between more than 10 min and several hours, 22% between several hours and several days, and 14% between several days and several weeks. Histopathological dating was statistically associated with wound location (p < 0.01), the type of injury, hypothermia, positive toxicology, histopathological hepatic lesions, and survival time (p < 0.001). In conclusion, the histopathological analysis of skin wounds allowed to propose a survival time in almost half of cases, with a significant correlation with the police investigation-based estimation of survival time, but also other parameters such as wound location or toxicology. It however lacks of accuracy, and further studies are needed to develop new markers, notably based on immunohistochemistry.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank all the team of the Biopathology Department (CHRU–ICL, Nancy) for technical support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Legal Medicine, CHRU Nancy, Rue du Morvan, 54511, Vandoeuvre-Lès-Nancy, France

    Aude Esposito-Fava, Elodie Marchand & Guillaume Gauchotte

  2. Department of Biopathology, CHRU Nancy - ICL, BBB, Vandoeuvre-Lès-Nancy, France

    Guillaume Gauchotte

  3. Faculty of Medicine, INSERM U1256, NGERE, Université de Lorraine, Vandoeuvre-Les-Nancy, France

    Guillaume Gauchotte

  4. Centre de Ressources Biologiques, CHRU, BB-0033-00035, Nancy, France

    Guillaume Gauchotte

Authors
  1. Aude Esposito-Fava
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  2. Elodie Marchand
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  3. Guillaume Gauchotte
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Correspondence to Guillaume Gauchotte.

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This retrospective study was approved by the institutional review board. All procedures performed in the present study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institution the national research committee of France and the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Esposito-Fava, A., Marchand, E. & Gauchotte, G. Skin injuries in forensic histopathology: a descriptive study. Forensic Sci Med Pathol 20, 51–58 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12024-023-00610-9

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