Morphologic changes in spinal cord of patients with spinal injuries who died in hospital

Morphologic changes in the spine have been investigated in patients with spinal injuries who died in hospital. The incidence of injuries has been evaluated as 9.3% of mechanical injuries. Purposeful search for possible injuries increased the rate of detection of injuries of the spine and the cord. Spinal cord can be impaired without involving the osseous formations and spinal ligaments. Edema of the cord tissue develops during the early period of injury and prevents the detection of injuries, persisting for a long time after the injury. Edemas are detected even in subjects who died at the site of accident.     

Prevalence and postmortem diagnosis of hemocontact infections in intravenous drug abusers based on forensic medical research data

The spread of viral hepatitis C and B and of HIV was studied among the intravenous drug consumers (IDC) on the basis of 42 forensic-medical autopsies. The enzyme immune-assay (EIA) of blood serum showed, in 95.2% of cases, antibodies to hepatitis C virus, antibodies to HbsAg and HIV were registered in 11.9% in both cases. The possibilities of using the autopsy-blood serum for EIA-diagnosis of viral hepatitis and HIV were demonstrated. Morphological examinations of IDC showed, in them, chronic hepatitis (CH) of minimal, weakly-pronounced and moderate activities. Viral CH in HIV infected IDCs is characterized by a minimal and small-pronounced activity of the process and it is not different, according to its activity, from viral CH in IDCs without HIV.     

Classification of fractures of the skull vault bones

The proposed classification of fractures of the skull vault bones is based on fracture morphogenesis. Russian and foreign published data on skull vault fractures and the authors' own observations allowed some analogies and helped develop a new classification.     

Forensic-medical aspects in assessment of damage to health as the result of chest and low back spinal traumas

By the law of the Russian Federation, forensic medical examination is obligatory to assess damage to health in chest and low back spinal traumas. In persons who survived spinal trauma the assessment of its severity is regulated by the rules of assessment of the severity of bodily damage and harm to health. Difficulties arising in this assessment are outlined. Damage to health is proposed to be evaluated not only by clinical data on the condition of the patients but also by macro- and microscopic results of forensic-medical examination of the dead body, by the presence and severity of edema of the spinal cord tissue.