Mahmut Şerif Yıldırım

Evaluation of Methods Used in Diagnosis of Fatal Hypothermia

Post-mortem diagnosis of hypothermia-induced deaths is still a challenging issue, today. Because of lack of findings and markers used for definitive diagnosis, cases of deaths secondary to hypothermia either remain undiagnosed or end up with an exclusion diagnosis. However, thanks to improvements in forensic sciences, literature has reported a great number of considerable methods and markers promising in the diagnosis of fatal hypothermia. In this paper we aimed to attract attention of forensic medicine professionals to the issue by discussing findings and markers suggesting and/or indicating fatal hypothermia, in the light of the literature.