Histopathology Findings of Asphyxia in Lungs of Hanging and Drowning Deaths

Sometimes mysterious circumstances accompanied by inadequate external and internal findings related to ligature mark in hanging deaths as well as scarcity of classical lung features in drowning deaths makes it difficult to conclude or rule out cause of death as asphyxia. To form opinion regarding cause of death as hanging and drowning in such cases, documenting histopathology findings of lungs as supplementary autopsy evidence based on the theory that asphyxia comprises different kinds of lesions that can produce varied histopathology findings is really a meaningful exercise. Hanging and drowning being the most common prevalent asphyxia types in India, 47 hanging and 28 drowning deaths were studied to find more common histopathology findings for each group of asphyxia. Cause of deaths of the cases confirmed after meticulous post mortem examinations and police investigations. Histopathology section from lungs of every case was prepared and stained with Haematoxylin-Eosin. As compared to drowning, the histopathology findings of alveolar tissue collapse, alveolar overinsufflation, bronchiolar constriction and bronchiolar dilatations, congestion, interstitial edema and alveolar hemorrhage were more commonly observed in lungs of hanging. The only histopathology finding that was more commonly noticed in lungs of drowning was intra-alveolar edema.