Ethanol level differential between postmortem blood and subdural hematoma

Abstract

Alcohol use is a major risk factor for accidental injury and death. However, when death occurs several hours after injury, ethanol in the blood may be absent or low. Ethanol in sequestered hematomas has been used to retrospectively implicate alcohol as a contributing factor at the time of injury. A 69-year-old man died from a large acute subdural hematoma. He had been seen in a hospital emergency department 8 to 12 hours before his death for treatment of two lacerations (one on the head) that occurred during a fall. Postmortem blood ethanol was 0.07%, and subdural hematoma ethanol was 0.04%. This ethanol level differential between the postmortem blood and the subdural hematoma indicates that this man had consumed alcohol after being released from the hospital.