Estimating Time Since Death From Post Mortem Lividity: An Autopsy Study Conducted in Government Medical College and Ssg Hospital ofCentral Gujarat State of India

Abstract

Background: Evaluation and estimation of time since death is a fundamental part of medico-legal investigations. Post mortem lividity or post-mortem staining is a bluish or reddish-purple discoloration due to capillo-venous distension with blood, at the under surface of the skin on the dependant parts of the body, as a result of settling of blood in those areas following pulling by gravity, after circulation of the blood in motion ceases. A study was conducted in the department of forensic medicine, GovernmentMedical College and SSG hospital, Vadodara to evaluate time since death by method of studying post mortem lividity. This was prospective and observational study conducted on 256 dead bodies brought for post mortem examination from November 2021 to August 2022. It was observed that the Post mortem Lividity starts appearing as a patchy form by 1-7 hours and well develops by 7-13 hours. Post mortem Lividity gets fixed by 8-18 hours following death. It was concluded that compared to other methods, the post mortem lividity assessment can be used as the most conventional, easy and quicker method for estimating time since death