EARLY CHANGES

A) Facial Pallor
After death due to stoppage of circulation, blood drains from capillaries & small vessels to big ones, so face appears pale and bloodless.
Exception- where there is obstruction of venous return due to compression over the neck or below. The face is congested and cyanosed.
eg:-strangulation
B) Loss of Elasticity of the Skin
· Occur due to loss of tonicity of the skin muscles including those of the face
· Ironing of the facial creases
· The face looks younger
C) Primary relaxation or flaccidity of the muscles
· after death muscles loose their tonicity & become flaccid
· Joints are loose and the chest wall flattens
· muscular tissues are still alive during this stage & still respond to electrical stimuli
D) Contact Flattening and Pallor
· During the stage of primary relaxation of muscles the areas which remain in contact with the ground become flat.
· blood from vessels of these areas are pressed out
· During the stage of Rigor mortis the areas continue to be flat
· Medico legal importance- from the contact flattening, the position of the body in which it stayed for some time after death can be understood.
E) Changes in the Eye
· The Corneal and Pupillary reflexes are lost
· The pupils dilate moderately after death
· The eyelids usually close due to loss of tonicity of the muscles of the eyelids
· Haziness of the Cornea-(1) When the eyes are open, then within about 15 minutes the cornea become hazy due to drying/dessication & deposition of dust and debris over them.(2) The cornea becomes permanently hazy after about 10-12 hours of death, due to decomposition
· Occular tension falls rapidly after death and within about half an hour it becomes zero
· Taches Noien scleroitiques –when the eyes remain open, within 2-3 hrs, the exposed white parts of the eyeballs become yellowish and within 2-3 days, the areas become brown. Each discoloured area is triangular in shape with the base on the limbus, the apex at the lateral or medial canthus and the two other sides of the triangle are formed by the margins of the upper and lower eyelids(4 such areas are formed)The retinal veins appear segmented within 10-15 seconds after death.