Background:Death by hanging may be suicidal, accidental or homicidal. However, as most hangings are suicides, the possibility of a non-suicidal death by hanging sometimes taken into consideration when there is evidence supporting this suspicion.General external appearances, Local external neck findings, neck autopsy andneck histological changes play major role in differentiation between types of hanging.
Aims & Objectives:to differentiate between types of hanging (suicidal, homicidal and accidental) by using different diagnostic methods includes naked eye examination, neck autopsy, examination of neck structure, and the histopathological features of neck structures at the ligation mark site: A study carried out in Department of Forensic Medicine and Clinical Toxicology, Zagazig University, Egypt from March 2018 to March 2019 with 36 cases of deaths due to hanging. A thorough external and internal examination of neck structure was performed in all the cases.
Results: A total of 36 cases were notified. Majority, Suicidal hanging associated with female sex (57.1%) of cases. homicidal and accidental hanging significantly associated with skin haemorrhage in (80%) of cases. Microscopic examination: breaking, wrinkling and compression of skin along with micro haemorrhages in subcutaneous tissues were notified which commonly associated with homicidal hanging.
Conclusion: The examination of corpse in hanging cases is made easy by correlating current observation with the autopsy finding. The correlation of external, internal and microscopic findings leads to easy formulation of final opinion these cases. It also, to some extent helps to differentiate between types of hanging.