The Importance of Post Mortem Artefacts in Medicolegal Autopsies

Ignorance of knowledge of artefacts may lead to many issues such as incorrect interpretation of the cause of death, manner of death, the time passed since the death, undue suspicion of a criminal offence, a halt in the investigation of a criminal offence, wastage of time and efforts eventually leading to miscarriage of justice. Yet artefacts, though are looked for, are not given much importance nor properly documented in forensic reports.

The present study was done to study artefacts that are antemortem or post-mortem artefacts.

The present study included 330 post mortems conducted in the mortuary of R.G. Kar Medical College, Kolkata from 2019 to 2020.All-cause deaths for which post mortem conducted were included in the study. Proportions were calculated. The data were analysed with SPSS IBM version 22.0

Out of 330 autopsies, 100 showed post mortem artefacts (30.3%). Among the artefacts, the third party artefacts were the most common (35%) followed by decomposition related artefacts (19%). Miscellaneous artefacts were due to iatrogenic skull fracture (6%) and limb fracture (6%) during the exhumation process. The decomposition artefact was 19% in which post-mortem purge and hypostasis mimicking contusion are the commonest.

It is evident from the study is that artefacts are commonly prevalent in the medico-legal practise of forensic medicine. These artefacts could be possible from the time of death till the dissection of the body during the autopsy. It could be even due to therapeutic or resuscitative. A medicolegal expert should be vigilant to find these artefacts to avoid misinterpretation of the findings.