Autopsy: the benefits for medicine and society throughout history.

Autopsies have played a crucial role in human medicine, forming a key foundation of medical knowledge. These final medical-anatomical procedures remain irreplaceable, shedding light on diagnoses, optimizing treatments, preventing disease spread, educating healthcare professionals, and influencing state jurisdiction. Despite the decline in the number of autopsies performed in recent decades, their medical-social significance remains essentially unchanged.

Hyperbaric oxygen treatment in recurrent development of complex regional pain syndrome: A case report.

A broad spectrum of conditions including neuropathic pain, complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) and fibromyalgia, have been implicated as causes of chronic pain. There is a need for new and effective treatments that patients can tolerate without significant adverse effects. One potential intervention is hyperbaric oxygen treatment (HBOT).

Autoerotic deaths: report of two unusual cases.

Autoerotic death is a rare but recurring phenomenon in forensic medicine. This article presents two cases of unusual autoerotic death with signs of autoerotic asphyxia. Although the first case appeared to be asphyxia, the autopsy confirmed natural cause of death during solitary sexual activity of 69-year-old man found with exposed and bandaged genitals.

[Applicability of non-invasive imaging methods in forensic medicine and forensic anthropology in particular].

Massive progress in developing even more precise imaging modalities influenced all medical branches including the forensic medicine. In forensic anthropology, an inevitable part of forensic medicine itself, the use of all imaging modalities becomes even more important. Despite of acquiring more accurate informations about the deceased, all of them can be used in the process of identification and/or age estimation.

Vomiting and aspiration of gastric contents: a possible life-threatening combination in underwater diving.

Vomiting and aspiration of gastric contents into the airways and lungs is a common and well-known clinicopathological entity. This phenomenon might also occur in underwater diving, where it can lead to life-threatening or fatal situations. This article presents two incidents involving diving-related vomiting with associated aspiration of gastric contents.

[Alcohol congeners and their implications for medicolegal assessment of drunkeness].

Unlabelled: Ethanol is the main psychoactive ingredient of alcoholic beverages. Together with water it makes their major part. The other substances contained in alcoholic beverages are called congeners.

Feasibility, diagnostic validity and limits of postmortem evaluation of a newborn infant following an extremely prolonged freezing interval: a thanatological case study.

In forensic assessment, denial and concealment of pregnancy has wide-ranging implications including criminal abortions, extramural deliveries, concealment of birth, newborn infant abandonment or even neonaticide. Clarification of whether a newborn was born alive is the most important factor when evaluating an abandoned neonate or concealment of birth. Other points that need to be addressed are determination of viability and maturity of the newborn infant, and the identity of the mother.

Non-traumatic and spontaneous hemothorax in the setting of forensic medical examination: a systematic literature survey.

Spontaneous hemothorax is a well-known yet seldom-reported entity in forensic literature. While trauma-related hemothorax is frequently encountered in a medicolegal setting, non-traumatic and spontaneous hemothorax are relatively uncommon entities. The wide range of causes that can trigger fatal intrathoracic bleeding include thoracic aortic dissection, followed by vascular malformations, various oncological diseases, and connective tissue abnormalities.

Gender differences in alcohol affection on an individual.

Unlabelled: It is a well-known fact that after drinking the same amount of alcohol, women show more signs of the effects of alcohol than men of the same weight. It seems that the main factors responsible for sex differences in alcohol metabolism and influence are the relatively lower amount of body water related to body fat in women than men and lower gastric ADH activity in women, both of which enable women to reach higher BAC after drinking equivalent amounts of alcohol with men. On the other hand, first-pass metabolism of alcohol during passing through the liver is more rapid in women, probably due to bigger liver mass in women than in men.

Snow groomer vehicle-related fatality: an illustrative case study of the importance of medicolegal involvement.

This article describes and discusses an unusual case of an accidental death of a 29-year-old female snowboarder. A snow-grooming vehicle had run over her body after she accidentally fell down during a training ride. According to the official statement, the victim was probably under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and the snowboarder caused the accident because she did not respect the safety restrictions and collided with the snow vehicle.

Giant cell myocarditis and endomyocardial calcification in a 2.5-month-old infant triggered by excessive maternal alcohol abuse: case study of an unusual association.

This report describes an unusual case of a 2.5-month-old infant's sudden death secondary to giant cell myocarditis and endomyocardial calcification, both unusual entities in pediatric patients. The mother had a history of excessive alcohol consumption during pregnancy and the postnatal period.

Fatal alcohol intoxication in women: a forensic autopsy study from Slovakia.

Background: Plenty of information related to alcoholism can be found in the literature, however, the studies have mostly dealt with the predominance of male alcoholism and data related to addiction in women are desperately scarce and difficult to find. Basic demographic data focusing on the impact of acute alcohol intoxication on the circumstances of death and social behaviour in the alcohol addicted female population are needed especially in the prevention of alcohol related mortality.

Methods: A retrospective forensic autopsy study of all accidental deaths due to alcohol intoxication over a 12-year period was performed in order to evaluate the locations, circumstances, mechanisms and causes of death.

An unusual case of anesthetic abuse by a full-face gas mask.

The authors report a case of sniffing of halothane (Narcotan) by a 32-year-old man, master of pharmacy, through the military full-face gas mask. The liquid halothane had been applied on the scrubber of the gas mask and voluntarily inhaled. The sniffer was found dead in his flat, with the gas mask still fixed and sealed on his face.