Congestion bleedings of the face and cardiopulmonary resuscitation - an attempt to evaluate their relationship

Objectives: Are any other factors besides the factor "cause of death" invol ved in the development of petechial hemorrhages (PET) of the head? The sign ificance of the cause of death is well known, other factors have been rarel y investigated in medical literature. Do they include cardiopulmonary resus citation (CPR), as has been claimed in several forensic publications? Mater ials and methods: (a) 473 consecutive autopsy cases (without strangulation) evaluated by one examiner, which were appropriate for this investigation: (b) analysis of 181 cardiac deaths (investigated by all physicians of our i nstitute). Results: Petechiae were found in 13.3% of all cases and were cle arly dependent on the cause of death, up to 20% were found in burn victims, intensive-care patients and cardiac fatalities. Petechiae were more freque ntly observed in the middle age groups (>20%) than in old persons (<10%). T he number of PET cases increased with body mass but was lower in extremely obese persons, a greater number of cases with PET was also observed with in creasing heart weight. PET were observed in 11% of the deaths without CPR c ompared to 19% with CPR. This difference was predominantly caused by the su bgroup "acute coronary death", especially if victims younger than 60 years were considered, whereas in many. other causes of death no difference in th e prevalence of PET with or without CPR could be observed. Conclusion: Besi des the cause of death. other factors (age. body mass and possibly even hea rt weight) influence the development of petechiae. The hypothesis that CPR alone produces PET is not confirmed by our experience. (C) 2001 Elsevier Sc ience Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.