Acute cerebral infarction caused by congenital hypoplasty of cerebral artery in a severe burn case.

An 81-year-old man who had been healthy died 1 week after suffering severe burns. The autopsy revealed a fresh unilateral cerebral infarction with hemorrhagic transformation within the territory of the anterior cerebral artery (ACA) and hypoplasty of the A1 portion of the ACA. Since no other cause which could have resulted in this infarction was detected and since the victim had been healthy before the fire broke out, we concluded that this infarction occurred because of congenital hypoplasty of the left ACA and hypovolemic shock suffered after the burn injuries. Since cerebral infarction itself can lead to burn injuries or other accidents due to acute motor disturbance or syncope, detailed macroscopic and histological examinations of the brain of severe burn victims is important for evaluating the correlation between the infarction and a fire or other accidents.