On which postmortem day do the eyes typically become opaque if they are closed?

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The eyes typically become opaque by the third postmortem day if they have been closed. This phenomenon is known as "corneal clouding" and occurs due to the lack of blood circulation and metabolic activity following death. The changes in the cornea may start within the first day after death, but it's often around the third day that the opacity becomes pronounced enough to be observed.

The biological processes leading to this change include dehydration and the accumulation of postmortem changes like rigor mortis, which affects the overall condition of the body, including the eyes. In scenarios where the eyes remain open, the timeline for cloudiness might differ slightly, but when they are closed, the expected timeline for the opacity aligns with the information that by the third postmortem day, significant changes like this become evident.

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