Usefulness of postmortem ocular findings in forensic autopsy

We report three autopsy cases in which the eyeballs were removed and examined macroscopically and microscopically after being cut using the alternate gross examination technique. The first case was a 67-year-old woman who was killed by ligature and manual strangulation. A postmortem opthalmological observation of the left eyeball revealed tiny hemorrhages and congestion in the pars plicae of the ciliary body. These changes were considered to arise by a mechanism similar to that by which facial hemorrhages arise during strangulation. The second case was a 54-year-old man who died from a cerebral contusion received during a traffic accident. A postmortem opthalmological observation of the eyeball using a surgical microscope revealed papilledema and retinal hemorrhages resulting from a rise in intracranial pressure. The third case was a 77-year-old woman who died from cardiac tamponade caused by a stab wound to the heart. A postmortem ophthalmological examination revealed that she had undergone cataract surgery and an intraocular lens implantation. However, her relatives did not know when and where she had received the surgery. An intraocular lens was removed and its material and shape was examined. Based on an examination of the lens, we were able to locate the hospital where she had received the surgery 4 years earlier. This suggests that postmortem opthalmological observations may be useful for forensic pathology and personal identification.