[Practical questions in case of maternal death]. / Questions pratiques en cas de survenue d'un décès maternel.

Every year, in France, about 70 women die during their pregnancy or the delivery. Any maternal death during labour is a traumatic event for the medical team and the family. The medical team has to face many "new" problems. We try to identify all the problems which the medical team has to face in front of a maternal death and try to solve them by a medical literature and French laws review. The medical team often feels powerless when a maternal death occurs. This work was made to be a guideline.

Frequency of traumatic lesions alleged by victims of assault during police custody.

A retrospective study was undertaken to determine the frequency of traumatic lesions found in individuals alleging police brutality during official custody in the département of Hauts-de-Seine, located in the west suburbs of Paris. All medical certificates relating to the examination of 11,653 individuals detained during the year 2004 were analysed. From this population, there were 119 cases where victimized individuals alleged police assault and 245 revealed aggressive police manhandling, as indicated by traces of tight handcuffs. Among the individuals alleging police violence, most of them showed recent traumatic lesions (n=91). The majority of lesions were superficial contusions frequently located in the cervico-cephalic area. All traumatic lesions were compatible with the allegations of police assault. Neurological complications secondary to the application of handcuffs were encountered in less than 2% of the cases. Although no death was recorded in police custody during the period of the study, approximately 5% of the population that had encountered some form of police violence was found to require emergency hospitalization.