Fatal mechanical asphyxia: a comprehensive forensic review with an illustrative case

Abstract

Fatal asphyxia is one of the most diagnostically complex categories of sudden death because its macroscopic signs are often subtle, heterogeneous and easily confounded with post-mortem artefacts. We reviewed 38 English-language publications (2000–2025) that contained autopsy-confirmed asphyxial fatalities and re-coded every case into a five-group typology—mechanical, electrical, toxic (chemical), ambient-hypoxia and pathological (endogenous). Recurrent external findings, internal soft-tissue lesions and ancillary toxicological or histochemical markers were extracted, and the literature trends were anchored to day-to-day practice by a single illustrative non-homicidal thoracocervical-compression case from our regional medicolegal institute. Within the pooled dataset, neck compression accounted for 55 % of mechanical fatalities, yet petechial haemorrhages were absent in 38 % of those victims, and potential toxicological co-factors (ethanol, opioids or sedatives) were documented in almost one-third of all cases. These discrepancies expose blind spots in death-scene reconstruction and in the routine dissection of deep cervical tissues. Accordingly, we propose a pragmatic classification framework that forces explicit consideration of scene context, mandates layer-by-layer dissection of the neck and anterior thorax, and incorporates targeted toxicology to resolve ambiguous mechanisms. By integrating narrative evidence with real-world autopsy experience, the review delineates where current diagnostic protocols succeed and where they fail, providing forensic pathologists with a clearer decision pathway when evaluating suspected asphyxial deaths.