title: Epidural haemorrhage of the cervical spinal cord: a post-mortem artefact?
abstract: Spinal epidural haemorrhage is a rare entity that occurs uncommonly in adults and rarely in children. It has a typical clinical presentation, although to date, the cause for the majority of cases remains unknown. We present a series of cases where epidural haemorrhage was identified at post-mortem, principly to the cervical cord, in cases outside the age range usually reported for clinical epidural haemorrhage, and with no underlying pathology to account for the finding. We present a hypothesis for a post-mortem cause for this finding and consider that, in the absence of any other identifiable causation, then this is a post-mortem occurrence similar to that of the Prinsloo-Gordon artefact of the soft tissues of the neck. This finding must be interpreted with care so as not to make the mistaken diagnosis of a nonaccidental head injury based on its finding, especially in the absence of intracranial, cranial nerve, optic nerve or eye pathologies.
authors.affiliation: Division of Forensic Pathology, University of Leicester, Robert Kilpatrick Building, Leicester Royal Infirmary, Leicester LE2 7LX, UK. gnr3@le.ac.uk
authors.forename: G N
authors.initials: GN
authors.lastname: Rutty
authors.forename: W M V
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Squier
authors.forename: C J H
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Padfield
mesh_terms: D016477:Artifacts; D002574:Cervical Vertebrae / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D046748:Hematoma, Epidural, Spinal / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D011180:Postmortem Changes