[Forensic appraisal of subarachnoid hemorrhage]

Subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) can be classified as traumatic SAH or spontaneous SAH based on etiology. The traumatic SAH is the common manifestation of head injury and difficult to make a diagnosis in forensic investigation. Based on practical experiences of forensic investigation and relevant references, the main points (SAH identification, examination, death mechanism) were summarized in this article. For the understanding, we try to classify the traumatic SAH into three subtypes: brain injury associated SAH, traumatic rupture of basal cerebral vessels SAH and traumatic focal SAH.