EXHUMATIONS - SYNOPSIS OF MORPHOLOGICAL AND TOXICOLOGICAL FINDINGS INRELATION TO THE POSTMORTEM INTERVAL - SURVEY ON A 20-YEAR PERIOD AND REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Before an exhumation the question of its possible success usually aris es. This paper aims to act as an aid by providing comprehensive lists (''expectation catalogues'') of morphological and toxicological findin gs with their corresponding postmortem intervals. All organ systems ar e included. The results are based on the retrospective evaluation of 4 6 exhumations performed at the Cologne Institute of Forensic Medicine in a 20-year period (1974-1994) and a review of the literature. In our own material (34 males, 12 females, age range: 2 days-91 years) the p ostmortem interval varied from 6 days to 20.5 years. Exhumations were performed by order of criminal courts (n=28), social insurances (n=13) and private persons (n=5). Main indications were problems of causalit y in social and civil law (n=14), suspected intoxications (n=10), poss ible medical malpractice (n=7), criminal aspects of traffic accidents (n=7) and identifications (n=5). The expectation catalogues include th e following remarkable items (with postmortem interval) from our own m aterial: coronary thrombosis (3.5 months), granulation tissue in myoca rdial infarction (3.5 months), myocardial fibrosis (2.5 years), corona ry sclerosis (7.5 years), femoral vein thrombosis and pulmonary emboli sm (3.75 months), pneumonia (3 months), pulmonary emphysema and chroni c bronchitis (2.5 years); detection of strangulation marks (2 months); preservation of bone marrow histology (3 months), gastrointestinal tr act in continuity (7.5 years), macroscopic and histological cerebral s tructures (17 years); toxicological detection of phenobarbital (6 week s), CO-Hb (9.5 weeks), chlorprothixene (5.5 years), diazepam (7.5 year s), furosemide (7.5 years) and parathion (E 605) (17 years). The cause of death could be clarified with sufficient certainty in 36/46 cases (78%). Exhumation problems could be answered completely in 39 eases an d partly in seven further cases. On the whole this review again underl ines the importance and value of this special kind of body examination even after long postmortem periods. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.