Forensic identification of traumatic brain edema is generally not difficult. On the basis of a clear history of severe head trauma, a series of symptoms and signs of intracranial hypertension, including possible secondary manifestations of cerebral hernia, should be considered. Autopsy also has its special macro and micro lesions. Many traumatic brain edema coexist with other brain injuries, such as intracranial hematoma and brain contusion and laceration. The main cause of death is usually not brain edema, but these serious brain injuries. The difficulty is that only obvious brain edema is found in autopsy, and other brain injuries do not exist or appear obviously light, such as focal subarachnoid hemorrhage and/or superficial focal brain contusion. Because of the lack of understanding of the causes of death caused by brain edema, there is controversy. This situation is sometimes encountered in practical work.

In addition to brain injury, brain edema can also be seen in many diseases, such as encephalitis, meningitis, acid or alkali poisoning, hypoxia and asphyxia, many poisoning, solar radiation or heat shock, freezing to death, electric injury and so on. Excluding these non-traumatic factors, it is generally not difficult to comprehensively analyze the symptoms, scene and case before death according to the results of autopsy pathological examination.