[Hanging: fulminant thrombembolia as a vital reaction? (author's transl)].

Fulminant pulmonary thrombembolias were found in two suicides committed by hanging. The origin was a thrombosis of the iliac vein in one case and of femoral veins in the other. The thrombi and emboli respectively were examined histologically. It is assumed that the detachment of the emboli might have been caused mechanically during terminal muscle-cramps or hemodynamically by sudden alterations of blood pressure.