A case of postoperative hemorrhage after a hysterectomy in which a bleeding point of the left uterine artery was identified by postmortem angiography

Abstract

We report a case of fatal postoperative hemorrhage caused by failure to ligate the left uterine artery during a hysterectomy in a 42-year-old woman, as demonstrated postmortem by conventional autopsy methods and confirmed by angiography. Angiography was confirmed to be a useful adjunctive technique for postmortem diagnosis and localization of the bleeding point. In cases of suspected fatal postoperative hemorrhage, postmortem angiography may be of value to the forensic pathologist.