[Injuries of the large arteries of the brain and vital reactions. An electron microscopy study].

In 90 forensic autopsies (Craniocerebral injury, gunshot, stabbing, blow, strangulation, etc.), semithin sections of great arteries were prepared from around 770 Epon blocks and checked for vital reactions at the mural and intimal ruptures. In 21 cases in which death had occurred immediately or soon after the trauma, with three exceptions, there was a subsequent electron microscopic investigation.

[Perforation of the skull base during nasogastric intubation].

The skull base was perforated and extensive wounds occurred in the brain during the passage of a nasogastric tube on a 48 year old woman, under general anaesthetic. The patient was treated by artificial respiration but died on the 14th day. The site of entry was the sphenoid sinus.

[Longitudinal tears of the vertebral arteries. Calculations and experimental findings concerning the conditions (author's transl)].

In the preceding publication (see p. 1) the question arose of how to explain the longitudinal tears of the vertebral arteries at the departure of the posterior inferior cerebellar artery, that occur as origin of fatal subarachnoidal hemorrhage subsequent to blunt forces against the head. As the result of calculation of flow dynamics in a right-angled branching a curvature of the main vessel opposite to the flow in the branch develops.

[The traumatic subarachnoidal hemorrhage (author's transl)].

In general forensic neurotraumatologic experience blunt head traumas can cause a lethal basal subarachnoid hemorrhage. Twenty-seven published cases of traumatic ruptures with either sufficiently described or histologically proven origin from an other wise "healthy" basal artery system were collected and four new observations were added. In 16 cases detachments and lacerations of arteries in the region of branchings from the Circulus Willisii were described: overstretching ruptures.

[Experimental neurotraumatology--rotation (author's transl)].

Experimental simulations of motion of the brain at impact were carried out. Rotational accelerations from 2,000 up to 8,000 rad/s2 with durations of 8 to 32 ms were applied to preparations of human skull and brain. The tests were filmed with a high-speed camera with up to 3,000 frames/s.

[Experimental Neurotraumatology. Investigations of injuries to the cerebral cortex by light and electron scanning microscopes (author's transl)].

To study early ultrastructural lesions including cortical contusions, investigations of injuries to the cortical arteries were made with a transmission electron microscope to supplement those made with conventional light microscopes. The various injuries were produced on five trephined dogs with the help of instruments. The survival times amounted to 2,6,9,15, and 21 days.

[Sudden death in traffic due to natural causes (author's transl)].

Together with the increase in motorisation sudden death at the wheel by natural causes has also gained more importance although this is not a very frequent occurrence. Scattered reports on such cases in the literature are summarized and discussed with regard to recognition, frequency, age and sex distribution, pathological changes and marginal problems, e. g.

[Criteria of the death of an individual from the point of view of forensic medicine].

Five dead bodies from which the kidneys had been removed for transplantation were investigated with reference to the findings and the time elapsing until determination of cerebral death. In two other cases, organs were not removed because the relatives had refused consent or cerebral death had not yet occurred. The uncertainty of the exact time of cerebral death is reflected in the uncertainties in the documentation of the time of death.