Summary
Iliopsoas muscle hemorrhage presenting at autopsy can result from a variety of underlying pathological conditions. Such conditions include primary (hemophilia) or secondary (disseminated intravascular coagulation, anticoagulant drugs) coagulation disorders, hypothermia, trauma, iatrogenic damage, and other, rare causes. Iliopsoas hemorrhage can be extensive and through the massive blood loss may account for fatal outcome, but the bleeding can also be small and carry only diagnostic relevance. In many cases of hypothermia, sepsis, or coagulation disorders, additional macroscopically visible pathological findings are discrete or completely absent, making it necessary to perform further investigations such as histology and laboratory tests to establish the right diagnosis. In some autopsy cases, however, the cause of the muscle hemorrhage cannot be made out. The clinical picture of iliopsoas muscle hemorrhage can vary from no symptoms at all over slight pain in the groin to life-threatening hemorrhagic shock. In the living, imaging techniques like ultrasound and computed tomography are needed for establishing the diagnosis. Because of the great differences in clinical presentation, as well as the rare occurrence of iliopsoas muscle hemorrhage, the disorder is sometimes overlooked in the clinical setting until severe and sometimes fatal complications develop. Thus, from the medicolegal point of view, questions concerning medical malpractice may arise in cases of iliopsoas muscle hemorrhage.
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Türk, E.E. (2004). Iliopsoas Muscle Hemorrhage Presenting at Autopsy. In: Tsokos, M. (eds) Forensic Pathology Reviews. Forensic Pathology Reviews, vol 1. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-786-4_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-786-4_15
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