BARRANCO R.

In many circumstances the forensic pathologist can question whether the dead person experienced sepsis, which caused or contributed to death. The autopsy of a death related to sepsis is a difficult task for the forensic pathologist due to the lack of typical pathological factors as well as clinical and circumstantial information about death....

Acute bacterial meningitis in infants and newborns represents a medical emergency and a significant cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Moraxella catarrhalis has been considered a microorganism with low pathogenic potential, and only in exceptional cases has it been found to cause meningitis in infants and immunocompetent people. We...

Generally, the term complex suicide refers to a form of suicide in which more than one traumatic method is applied, simultaneously or consecutively, through multiple self-injurious actions using different methods and involving various bodily sites. A distinctive feature of complicated suicides is the failure of the initial attempt of the...

Background: Discovery of evidence of acute brain ischemia or hypoxia and its differentiation from agonal hypoxia represents a task of interest but extremely difficult in forensic neuropathology. Generally, more than 50% of forensic autopsies indicate evidence of brain induced functional arrest of the organ system, which can be the result of a...

Acute pulmonary emphysema (APE) is describedin cases of drowning and can be considered as a sign of vitality. In our experience, however, APE is not very evident in cases of saltwater drowning. The present study aims at investigating whether APE is present in both fresh and saltwater drowning by means of digital morphometric analysis of lung...

The diagnosis of drowning is one of the most difficult in forensic medicine. The aim of this study was to analyze pulmonary tissue reactions in death by drowning. In particular, we focused on the immunohistochemical expression of P-selectin, SP-A, HSP70, AQP-5, and fibronectin to investigate our expression in drowning and to understand whether...

In forensic practice, it is not always easy to determine whether a person has died from strangulation. The recommended physical examination includes a thorough inspection of the head, neck, oral cavity, and eyes. Ligature marks are sometimes absent or poorly delineated, especially when soft devices are used. Otorrhagia is poorly described in...

The authors illustrate a rare case of aortic arch rupture in a 60-year-old woman, occurred during a tracheostomy performed using the Griggs method. The autopsy examination showed an aortic arch rupture in an intermediate position situated in the area between the brachiocephalic artery ostium and the left common carotid artery ostium, associated...

Biliary atresia (BA) is a fatal condition resulting in the lack of effective biliary drainage leading invariably to liver failure and cirrhosis within a year, and it is often lethal within a few months in the absence of corrective surgery or liver transplantation. In fact, BA is the most common indication for pediatric liver transplantation....

Background: The COVID-19 outbreak rapidly became a public health emergency affecting particularly the frail category as cancer patients. This led oncologists to radical changes in patient management, facing the unprecedent issue whether treatments in oncology could be postponed without compromising their efficacy. Purpose: To discuss legal...

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Methadone is a synthetic opioid, a pure agonist of the μ receptor. It is used for opioid maintenance therapy in heroin addiction. In recent years, Italian studies of incidence and prevalence have indicated an increase in the illegal sales of methadone and, consequently, an increase in deaths due to acute methadone intoxication as well. The...

AIM: We report a particular case study of the unexpected death of a 70-year-old caucasian man (affected by crohn's disease) due to the laceration of the ileocolic mesentery and its blood vessels following a colonoscopy procedure carried out only a few hours previously. MATERIAL OF THE STUDY: The autopsy showed that the lacerated blood vessels...

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Functional neurological disorders can have different clinical manifestations, including coma, in the setting of an unknown etiology. In this article, we present a case of a young man affected by intellectual disabilities who, after a physical assault reported serious neurological alterations and a functional coma. This case shows how a...

The sudden and unexpected death of an infant or child due to cancer is a particularly rare event. Most of the cases concern primary growths located in vital organs such as the heart or the brain. Only in an extremely small number of cases does it occur in infants or children affected by liver cancer. Herein we report the sudden and unexpected...