Post-Mortem Wound
Definition
A wound inflicted after circulatory cessation. Lacks haemorrhage at the wound margin, lacks PMN infiltration, and shows reduced tissue retraction. May retain mechanical morphological features (abrasion collar, soot, stippling) that are independent of vitality. Distinguished from antemortem wound by gross and histological examination, provided the post-mortem interval has not produced confounding autolysis.
- Timing
- Inflicted after circulatory cessation
- Absent
- Haemorrhage at wound margin, PMN infiltration
- Reduced
- Tissue retraction
- Retained features
- Abrasion collar, soot, stippling if mechanically produced
Common questions
Why can a post-mortem wound still show soot or stippling despite the person being dead?+
Soot deposition and powder stippling are mechanical and thermal effects of the discharge itself, not products of a living physiological response, so they form the same way regardless of whether the person was alive, and cannot by themselves indicate vitality.
What complicates distinguishing a post-mortem wound from an antemortem one at autopsy?+
If the post-mortem interval is long enough, autolysis and early decomposition can obscure or mimic the histological signs the distinction depends on, such as PMN infiltration, so the examiner needs a reasonably fresh body and correlates gross findings with the estimated interval since death.
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