Study of gross and histopathological findings of stomach mucosa in cases of fatal poisoning with respect to survival period and treatment status

Poisoning is commonly encountered cause of death in medico legal autopsies. Diagnosis of poisoning is based on post-mortem examination and chemical analysis of viscera. Sometimes in cases of death due to poison, where treatment intervention has done and survival period is long, poison is eliminated from the body, poison is not found grossly in stomach on autopsy, and poison also cannot be detected by chemical analysis. Present study can be helpful there to make diagnosis of poison from gross and histopathological findings of stomach mucosa.

Present study was undertaken to evaluate gross and histopathological findings of stomach mucosa in cases of fatal poisoning with respect to survival period and treatment status.

Present study was conducted on randomly selected 150 cases of poisoning from total autopsies performed in year 2012 at department of forensic medicine, PDU govt. medical college, Rajkot. Gross mucosal findings of stomach were noted. Histopathological examination of stomach was done and findings were noted.

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In all cases of poisoning, irrespective of type of poison treatment status and survival period, in stomach, on gross examination, haemorrhage is observed in maximum number of cases; on histopathological examination, necrosis is observed in maximum number of cases.

In all cases of poisoning, irrespective of poison, highest cases (45.33%) were untreated. Lowest cases (14.66%) were of <12 hours survival period with treatment intervention.

On the basis of the gross and histopathological findings of stomach, combining with other data (history, clinical findings) diagnosis of poisoning can be made inspite of treatment intervention and long survival but to confirm the nature of poison chemical analysis is must.