Superficial soft-tissue injury.

In 1992, Lee and Opeskin published an article on the little-recognized problem of death related to multiple superficial soft-tissue injuries following an assault. These deaths resulted from an acute assault and were restricted to young aboriginal women with a history of alcoholism. Presented here is a similar case occurring in a 22-year-old Polynesian woman. However, there are some significant differences. Aside from the final acute assault, there was evidence of chronic repeated episodes of superficial soft-tissue injury that resulted in undermining of connections between large areas of different tissue planes. These injuries produced pockets and spaces lined by fibrous tissue and numerous old intramuscular and subcutaneous hematomas, some of which showed secondary infection. There was also dense soft-tissue and subcutaneous fibrosis, and myositis ossificans.