The Diagnostic Value of the Changes in the Renal Glomerulus in the Postmortem Diagnosis of Freshwater Drownings

Drowning is one of the major causes of unintentional injury death worldwide. As there are no pathomorphological findings specific to the diagnosis of drowning, definitive postmortem diagnosis of drowning continues to be a significant problem in forensic medicine. This study aims to present an additional diagnostic sign in cases of freshwater drowning by investigating the histopathological changes of renal tissue in the postmortem diagnosis of freshwater drowning. For this purpose, 103 cases were investigated in which the causes of death were freshwater drowning (n = 45), traffic accidents (n = 33) and acute myocardial infarction (n = 25). Renal corpuscular structures of selected cases were examined stereologically and histopathologically. Renal corpuscle diameter, renal corpuscle surface area, glomerular tuft surface area, and Bowman space were calculated by stereological method. When compared with the glomeruli of the control group, renal corpuscle diameter, renal corpuscle surface area, glomerular tuft surface area, and Bowman space values of kidney tissues of all freshwater drowning cases were found to be decreased (P < 0.001). These changes may be considered as an essential histopathological finding in postmortem diagnosis of freshwater drowning cases.