Abstract: Fat embolism syndrome(FES) is a common and life-threatening clinical syndrome,which is a difficult problem frequently encountered in medical science,especially in forensic medicine and orthopaedics.FES would be easily mistaken or missed by forensic examiner due to the lack of the specific symptoms and signs.This article reviews the etiology,pathogenesis,pathology,the mechanism of death,as well as the advances of the forensic medicine diagnosis of FES with current literatures update.

Key words: forensic pathology, embolism, fat, review[publication type], syndrome