Department of Forensic Medicine, Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi
The ingestion of corrosive agents frequently produces adverse effect on the esophagus and the stomach or on both. Agents of alkaline pH usually result in esophageal injury, and agents of acid pH often cause gastric damage. Squamous epithelium lining the esophagus is sensitive to alkaline agents; however, alkaline agents upon reaching the stomach are rapidly neutralized by the gastric acidity of the stomach. Conversely, esophageal mucosa is resistant to acid agents, which in turn produce severe inflammatory changes throughout the gastric wall. Corrosive agents regardless of their pH acidity can be destructive in some instances to both esophagus and stomach. Rarely does one note necrosisof the entire stomach secondary to the swallowing of corrosive agents. Here a fatal case of corrosive acid ingestion was described with a brief review of literature.
