Chakravarthy Murali
Department of Anesthesiology, Critical Care and Pain Relief, Wockhardt Heart Institute, Bangalore, Karnataka 560076, USA.
Am J Forensic Med Pathol. 2010 Mar;31(1):87-8. doi: 10.1097/PAF.0b013e3181c21c3d.
Rigor mortis is conventionally a postmortem change. Its occurrence suggests that death has occurred at least a few hours ago. The authors report a case of "Rigor Mortis" in a live patient after cardiac surgery. The likely factors that may have predisposed such premortem muscle stiffening in the reported patient are, intense low cardiac output status, use of unusually high dose of inotropic and vasopressor agents and likely sepsis. Such an event may be of importance while determining the time of death in individuals such as described in the report. It may also suggest requirement of careful examination of patients with muscle stiffening prior to declaration of death. This report is being published to point out the likely controversies that might arise out of muscle stiffening, which should not always be termed rigor mortis and/ or postmortem.
尸僵通常是一种死后变化。它的出现表明死亡至少已经发生了几个小时。作者报告了一例心脏手术后存活患者出现“尸僵”的病例。在所报告的患者中，可能导致这种生前肌肉僵硬的因素有：严重的低心排血量状态、使用异常高剂量的强心剂和血管升压药以及可能存在的败血症。在确定报告中所述个体的死亡时间时，这样的事件可能具有重要意义。它还可能提示在宣布死亡之前需要对肌肉僵硬的患者进行仔细检查。发表本报告是为了指出肌肉僵硬可能引发的争议，肌肉僵硬不应总是被称为尸僵和/或死后现象。
