Bohnert M, Pollak S
Institute of Legal Medicine, Albert-Ludwig-University, Albertstrasse 9, 79104, Freiburg, Germany.
Int J Legal Med. 2003 Apr;117(2):102-5. doi: 10.1007/s00414-002-0357-0. Epub 2003 Jan 18.
If the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet of burnt bodies are not or only partially charred, whitish discoloration and wrinkled detachment of the epidermis is often observed. The findings are strongly reminiscent of the so-called washerwoman's skin, as seen after exposure to a moist environment for at least several hours. However, this is not to be expected after exposure to dry heat. What might be conceivable is a swelling of the skin due to the effect of the water used for fighting the fire. On the other hand this phenomenon is also observed in burnt bodies, which demonstrably have not come into contact with water, so that formation seems to be caused by a different mechanism. Moreover there are also histological differences between real washerwoman's skin and the pseudo-washerwoman's skin of fire victims. Whereas in genuine washerwoman's skin the stratum corneum is disaggregated and perinuclear vacuoles are found in the stratum germinativum, burnt bodies with pseudo-washerwoman's skin show detachment of the epidermis due to serum-filled blisters with elongation and palisade arrangement of the nuclei in the stratum basale. Consequently these changes agree with second-degree burns.
如果烧伤尸体的手掌和脚底没有烧焦或只是部分烧焦，通常会观察到表皮出现白色变色和起皱脱落。这些发现很容易让人联想到所谓的洗衣妇样皮肤，这在暴露于潮湿环境至少几个小时后可见。然而，在暴露于干热后不应出现这种情况。可以想象的是，用于灭火的水的作用可能导致皮肤肿胀。另一方面，在明显未接触过水的烧伤尸体中也观察到这种现象，因此其形成似乎是由不同机制引起的。此外，真正的洗衣妇样皮肤与火灾受害者的假洗衣妇样皮肤在组织学上也存在差异。在真正的洗衣妇样皮肤中，角质层解体，生发层出现核周空泡，而有假洗衣妇样皮肤的烧伤尸体则表现为表皮因充满血清的水泡而脱落，基底层细胞核伸长并呈栅栏状排列。因此，这些变化符合二度烧伤。
