Exame médico-legal de cadáveres carbonizados: diagnóstico de vitalidade, trauma oculto e identificação humana

Abstract

Background: charring alters soft tissues, bone and body fluids, may create artifacts that mimic trauma and often compromises routine identification methods. Objective: to review findings relevant to vital exposure to smoke and heat, the distinction between thermal change and traumatic injury, and human identification in charred remains. Methods: narrative review with a structured search of PubMed/MEDLINE and SciELO, supplemented by backward citation searching, an international guideline and DOI verification, updated through 22 September 2026. The PCC question comprised burned or charred bodies; diagnosis of vitality, occult trauma and identification; and the medicolegal context. Results: no single finding establishes the temporal relationship between death and fire. Soot in the airways and carboxyhemoglobin support inhalation during life but do not, by themselves, prove that fire caused death; low or negative results do not establish exclusively postmortem exposure. Pugilistic posture, skin splits, thermal fractures and heat-induced epidural hematoma are important artifacts. Postmortem computed tomography helps locate projectiles, fractures and medical devices but does not replace autopsy. Identification should prioritize dental comparison, friction ridge analysis when feasible and DNA, using multiple samples selected according to the extent and pattern of burning. Conclusion: the forensic opinion should integrate scene findings, imaging, autopsy, histology, toxicology and identification, separate observations from inferences and acknowledge indeterminacy when thermal destruction precludes reliable discrimination.