[An autopsy case of atypical hanging: were arteries and air passage obstructed?]

A housewife hanged herself with her left foot on a washstand and her right foot above the floor. The ligature mark encircled once horizontally at the height of the laryngeal prominence (horizontal part), crossed at the front of the neck, rose to the posterior regions of the mandibular angles and extended upward to the preauricular regions (ascending part). Petechial haemorrhage was in the conjunctivae and froth was in the air passage. Vertebral arteries are not obstructed by the compression of the horizontal part (Brinkmann et al., 1981). Vertebral arteries are possibly not obstructed by the traction of the ascending part (experiment on our own necks). An air passage is not obstructed by the compression of the horizontal part (Langreuter, 1886; Strassmann, 1922). Obstruction of an air passage by typical hanging is removed by putting the bent head to upright position (Langreuter, 1886). From these experimental observations we clarified that in our case the vertebral arteries and air passage had very possibly not been obstructed by the hanging while 70-80% of her body weight, i.e. 40-45 kg, had loaded on the neck. The force to obstruct the arteries and air passage by hanging, which has been quoted in texts and articles in Japan, is absolutely due to the value for "typical" hanging.