Citation

Mebs D, Kettner M. Rechtsmedizin 2015; 25(6): 577-589.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s00194-015-0051-4

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Numerous marine and terrestrial animals can cause severe, even fatal poisoning in humans, either by injecting venom (e.g. spiders, scorpions, insects and snakes) or when used as food (e.g. mussels and fish). Although accidental and also intentional (e.g. suicide and murder) envenomation and poisoning by animals only play a minor role in forensic practice, knowledge of the potential and the limi-tations in identifying the toxin and the origin by autopsy and/or toxicological analysis is necessary when an expert opinion is required. The wide structural variety and the high toxicity of these natu-ral products are a challenge for the forensic toxicologist; however, the patient history and informa-tion on the circumstances of envenomation or poisoning are also essential. This is the first of two ar-ticles. The second article deals with poisoning by terrestrial animals. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015.

Language: de

Keywords

Toxicology; Autopsy; Envenomation; Analytical methods; Poisonous, venomous animals