Abdominal Organ Involvement in Blunt Trauma: An Autopsy-based Study from a Tertiary Forensic Medicine Center in South India

the pattern of trauma in the region is likely to have changed considerably with increasing vehicular density and altered roadtraffic dynamics.In this context, a contemporary autopsy-based characterization of abdominal organ involvement in blunt trauma was considered necessary.This study aimed to determine the extent of involvement of abdominal viscera in blunt trauma.The secondary objectives IntroductIonInjury is among the leading causes of death and disability worldwide, and its relative contribution to the global burden of disease has been projected to increase substantially over time. 1 Trauma remains a predominant cause of death in young individuals, and the abdomen, because of its soft, yielding wall and the vascular solid and hollow viscera it contains, is a site where fatal internal injury can occur with little or no external evidence of trauma.This characteristic complicates both clinical triage of the living and medicolegal certification of the dead, since the presence, nature, and extent of visceral injury frequently cannot be established without formal internal examination.In blunt trauma, solid organs such as the liver, spleen, and kidneys are more vulnerable to forces than the hollow viscera, which are relatively mobile and protected by wall compliance.This pattern of organ vulnerability differs from that seen in penetrating trauma and has direct implications for autopsy technique, causeof-death determination, and the medicolegal reconstruction of the mechanism of injury.Despite the forensic and clinical relevance of this subject, autopsy-based literature specifically characterizing the pattern of abdominal organ involvement in blunt trauma remains limited, and no comparable study had been undertaken at this center in over two decades preceding the present study.Over this interval,