Evaporated Liquid Nitrogen-Induced Asphyxia: A Case Report

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

A 27-yr-old postgraduate student was found lying at the floor of an unsealed underground

dry area, where a valve-opened empty cylinder of liquid nitrogen (150 L) was

connected to a cap-removed empty Dewar-flask (10 L) via a copper infusion tube. No

injury was found externally or internally. There were petechiae in the bilateral conjunctivae

and periorbital skin. The dry area, measuring 300×130×260 cm, had a

communication to the basement of the research building by a window measuring

90×60 cm in size at 130 cm above the floor. The scene reconstruction and atmosphere

gas analysis revealed that the O2 concentration at 60 cm above the base

dropped to 12.0% in 3 min and 10 sec, 10.0% in 8 min and 53 sec, 6.0% in 18 min

and 40 sec, and 4.2% in 20 min and 28 sec. The primary cause of death was asphyxia

by evaporated liquid nitrogen.

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