Abstract
The purpose of this study was to document tongue position and its relation to the cause of death and sequential stages of body decomposition, as observed during the routine forensic pathological examination of bodies. The sample of 608 included all bodies examined by the first and third authors during the period April 2016 to September 2016. Tongue position was recorded in all cases where position of the tongue could be visually determined. The condition of the body was recorded as follows: fresh flaccid, fresh with rigor mortis, early decomposition, and advanced decomposition. The cause of death was recorded where known. The results showed that 86% of all bodies examined did not show a protruded tongue and that 92.8% of the bodies were in a state of fresh rigor mortis. The study also showed that tongue protrusion was more prevalent in certain causes of death, namely, hanging, burning, and drowning, but was never absolute. The authors believe that due to the low numbers of bodies presenting with protruded tongues, this phenomenon has previously been overlooked, the significance thereof underestimated, and the pathophysiology and pathomorphology never fully investigated.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Tsokos M (2004) Forensic pathology reviews. Humana Press, Totowa
DiMaio VJM, Dimaio D (2001) Forensic pathology, 2nd edn. CRC Press, Boca Raton
Shkrum MJ, Ramsay DA (2007) Forensic pathology of trauma. Common problems for the pathologist. Humana Press, Totowa
Prahlow J (2010) Forensic pathology for police, death investigators, attorneys, and forensic scientists. Humana Press, South Bend
Madea B (2014) Handbook of forensic medicine. Wiley, Chichester
Moore L, Byard RW (1993) Pathological findings in hanging and wedging deaths in infants and young children. Am J Forensic Med Pathol 14(4):296–302
DiMaio VJM, Dana SE (2006) Handbook of forensic pathology, 2nd edn. CRC press, Boca Raton
Bernitz H, van Staden PJ, Cronje CM, Sutherland R (2014) Tongue protrusion as an indicator of vital burning. Int J Legal Med 128:309–312
Hejna P, Janik M (2014) Comments on tongue protrusion as an indicator of vital burning. Int J Legal Med 128(2):321–322
Bohnett M (2014) Protrusion of the tongue in burned bodies as a vital sign? Int J Legal Med 2:317
Madea B, Doberentz E (2015) Protrusion of the tongue in burned bodies as a vital sign? Letter to the editor concerning the paper “Tongue protrusion as an indicator of vital burning” by Bernitz et al. Int J Legal Med 129(2):313–314
Pope EJ (2007) The effects of fire on human remains: Characteristics of taphonomy and trauma. Dissertation PhD University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
Bockholdt B, Maxeiner H (2002) Hemorrhages of the tongue in post-mortem diagnostics of strangulation. For Sci Int 126(3):214–220
Hashimoto Y, Moriya F, Nakanishi A (2003) Intramuscular bleeding of the tongue in the victims of house fire. Legal Med 5(1):328–331
Nikolic S, Zivkovic V (2015) Protrusion of the tongue in bodies burned after death: two cases of arson to cover homicide. Med Sci Law 55(4):300–303
Schneider SA, Aggarwal A, Bhatt M, Dupont E, Tisch S, Limousin P, Lee P, Quinn N, Bhatia KP (2006) Severe tongue protrusion dystonia: clinical syndromes and possible treatment. Neurology 26(6):940–943
Lunetta P, Modell JH, Sajantila A (2004) What is the incidence and significance of “dry-lungs” in bodies found in water? Am J Forensic Med Pathol 25(4):291–301
Payne-James J, Byard RW (2016) Encyclopedia of forensic and legal medicine, 2nd edition, vol 3. Elsevier, Oxford
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
The research project was approved by the ethics committee of the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Pretoria and is in accordance with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bernitz, H., van Staden, P.J., Rossouw, S.H. et al. Tongue position and its relation to the cause of death and sequential stages of body decomposition observed during 608 forensic post-mortems. Int J Legal Med 133, 1279–1283 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-018-1981-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-018-1981-7