Diagrammatic Reconstruction and its Application in Medico-legal Autopsies.

Head injury is a problem often encountered by both the clinicians and the Forensic Medical persons. Due to the doubtful positive outcome in case of clinicians and the consequent litigations in the court procedures, again these types of cases are generally apprehensive. Naturally the requirement of manner of the occurrences of the cases has become very important. Here lies the importance of Diagrammatic Reconstruction of such cases. Present work is a trial in this domain with an example.

Demographic profile of head injury cases in Agra region.

Head injury is a serious health problem throughout the world. Increasing vehicles on roads work as catalyst for high incidence of casualties especially of Cranio-cerebral injuries. This is an autopsy based study of head injury cases, conducted in the Department of Forensic Medicine, S.N. Medical College Agra in year 2009-2010 for their demographic and etiological profile. Majority of the victims of head injury are male (76%) and of 3rd – 4th decade of life (54.4%). 66.4% head injury cases due to accident, Road traffic accident is the single largest cause i.e. 59.2%; out of which two wheelers are responsible for one-third (33%) of the casualties. Most common external injury is laceration of the scalp with or without contusion. Fracture of skull bones (97.2% cases; mostly fissured and comminuted fracture of parietal & temporal) and intracranial hemorrhages (96.4%) are seen in almost all the cases. Contre-coup injuries seen in about 2.8% cases, contre-coup haemorrhage observe mostly fronto-temporal area. Majority of the victim died on the spot or in the way to hospital without any medical assistance where the Cause of death mostly haemorrhage and shock.

Factors affecting mortality extradural haematoma

In a prospective study to analyze the affects of various factors on mortality from extradural haematoma, 100 consecutive patients presenting to the department of neurosurgery Lahore General Hospital were studied. The long distances patients had to travel and the time spent to reach our hospital was calculated. Forty seven% patients belonged to the 2nd and 3rd decades and males were 91%. The over all mortality was 23%. A delay in surgery was the primary cause of this high mortality. It was seen that the better pre-operative GCS and conscious level, were associated with better outcome. Associated intradural lesions and old age worsened the prognosis. Avoidable errors in management and post-operative systemic complications also claimed some lives

Intracranial pressure monitoring in head injury: its first use in Kuwait

The first clinical experience in Kuwait of the use of extradural fibre-optic sensors and Ladd equipment to monitor intracranial pressure [ICP] in head injury cases is described. Twenty patients with severe or moderately severe injuries were selected for monitoring from the head injury cases admitted to the Intensive-Care Unit of Al-Adan Hospital. The extradural device proved safe, simple, reliable and effective in assessing ICP response to hyperventilation, dehydration regime and head elevation which were used to reduce the high ICP accompanying brain oedema in such injuries

Stress management in post-concussional syndrome: a behavioral approach

Patients with post-concussional syndrome [PCS] have reported decreased concentration, reduced memory abilities, elevated anxiety levels, and irritability. While the constellation of symptoms associated it PCS has been well documented, few studies have investigated effective treatment intervention. The present study examined the effects of two stress reduction techniques in ameliorating the symptoms in a PCS patient three years post injury. Pre-and post-treatment neuropsychological evaluations, personality measures, and physiological responses suggested that stress reduction can be an effective treatment intervention for PCS

Tabla práctica para la evaluación de incapacidades en cabeza y cuello en Cirugía Plástica / Evaluation table of the inabilities for head and neck sequelae in plastic surgery

Hemos hecho una Tabla de Valoración de Incapacidades que considera las secuelas que observamos en Cirugía Plástica para las localizaciones en cabeza y cuello. Acentuamos la importancia del valor estético de las secuelas producidas por accidentes que alteran la capacidad laboral del afectado, teniéndose en cuenta cuatro parámetros: 1 - Topografía: Subdividida en regiones. 2 - Tamaño de la lesión: Dividio en tres grupos. 3- Características de la lesión: Tabuladas con números fijos para secuelas determinadas. 4 - Valor estético. Asignam os valores numéricos a cada parámetro, en relación a su jerarquía y gravedad. La evaluación se obtiene analizando las secuelas con la metodología descripta; sumando las cifras obtenidas y dividiendo por cuatro, que son los parámetros considerados, obtendremos así la cifra buscada de nuestra tabla. Esta debe llevarse a la conversión de los porcentajes de la total obrera