A newly reported, variant form of venous thromboembolism (VTE), named as "eThrombosis"1), occurred to a patient who was a prolonged sitting position at computer. The patient fortunately recovered from the disease through the early diagnosis and treatment. Recently, the author experienced a new case of a 24-year-old Korean man who died due to "eThrombosis"after playing an internet computer game continuously for about 85 hours. Therefore, the author would like to warn heavy computer users of the risk of the "eThrombosis", as they might also have high risk factors based upon this case, and inform this at-risk group that sitting for a long time at the computer results in an immobility that is a new greater risk factor of life-threatening VTE.
Early Diagnosis ; Humans ; Internet ; Pulmonary Embolism* ; Risk Factors ; Venous Thromboembolism ; Video Games ; Young Adult

Positional or postural asphyxia, which is clodely allied to traumatic asphyxia, means a fatal condition causing mechanical interference with pulmonary ventilation resulting from the adoption of particular body positions. To distinguish it from other form of asphyxia may be extremely difficult and therefore we need a full information about death scene and victim's history. The authors had experienced a case of putried corpse who had a history of paraplegia caused by traffic accident several years ago and he was found dead in trapped between bed and opened door of refrigerator. The autopsy finding was negative because of decomposition and toxicology was also negative. We will emphasize on the importance of finding of death scene.
Accidents, Traffic ; Asphyxia* ; Autopsy ; Cadaver ; Paraplegia ; Pulmonary Ventilation ; Toxicology

Transmesenteric hernia is a rare cause of small bowel obstruction and is caused by congenital mesenteric defect or postoperative complication. At first because it is a rare type of internal hernia and also clinical simptoms can be nonspecific or intermittent, it is seldom diagnosed before laparotomy or autopsy. We report 3 cases, 1-, 2-, and 4-year-old children and found a small bowel gangrene caused by a congenital defect of mesentery. We describe autopsy findings, clinical simptoms and clinical diagnosis.
Autopsy* ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Congenital Abnormalities ; Diagnosis ; Gangrene ; Hernia* ; Humans ; Laparotomy ; Mesentery ; Postoperative Complications

Carotid artery dissection and rupture is rare fatal complication of blunt head and neck trauma. The authors report on a case in which a fatal delayed rupture of the carotid artery developed in a 53-yearold man after motorcycle accident resulting in fracture of right leg but no apparent head and neck injuries. The patient initially did well. 7 days after the motor vehicle accident, he suffered rapid swelling of the neck, dyspnea, and fall into loss of consciousness. The patient died and autopsy revealed dissection and rupture of the common carotid artery.
Automobiles* ; Autopsy* ; Carotid Arteries* ; Carotid Artery, Common ; Dyspnea ; Head ; Humans ; Leg ; Motor Vehicles ; Motorcycles ; Neck ; Neck Injuries ; Rupture* ; Unconsciousness

Two autopsy cases of asphyxia due to oxygen deficiency are reported. The first case is that a 38-year-old man died in a storehouse. Many pears were stored in a storehouse and the its atmosphere was strictly controlled. The second case is that a 42-year-old man died in the boiler room of a fishing ship. Much amount of Freon gas escaped due to a defect of the refrigerator in the boiler room. The victim entered the boiler room because he repaired the refrigerator. But, the victim died when he entered the boiler room immediately. In this article, the autopsy findings and the contents of the investigation of scene of two cases are described.
Adult ; Anoxia* ; Asphyxia* ; Atmosphere ; Autopsy* ; Chlorofluorocarbons ; Humans ; Oxygen* ; Pyrus ; Ships ; United Nations

Cardiac injury is fatal in most cases. To save the life of patient with cardiac injury prompt treatment is necessary. For this to know the situation that fatal cardiac injury has occurred is mandatory. We report an unusual case of penetrating cardiac injury by a foreign body - wire - which has occurred during the work of lawn mower.
Foreign Bodies* ; Humans

When a pedestrian was hit by bumper and runover by tire of car, tire impression marks or damaged skin and fractured born marks were remained on dead body. Namely, to obtain the best result for analysis of traffic accident involved damaged human body, it must be considered both the analysis of autopsy and the analysis of traffic accident reconstruction. As these kinds of cases were managed to solve when one part of analysis was not for sure but some cases were missing because we have any regulated system to comply the results of both parts. This case is as follows, As soon as the child run across the street, the automobile was passing by and he went into between front tire and read tire and he was runover by rear tire and he died. Unfortunately this case was treated by police as the child was fault. However we studied this case both the analysis of tire impression and damaged mark of dead body and the aspect of traffic accident reconstruction. Finally, we found out the fact that the car hit the child and runover front and rear tire of the car. This case is valuable because we could find the truth that the child was not fault. Like this manner, here we would like to suggest a system or any kinds of organization should be considered so that the two forensic parts can be analyze together.
Accidents, Traffic ; Automobiles* ; Autopsy ; Child ; Human Body ; Humans ; Police ; Skin

It is possible to compare three-dimensional image of patterned injury in virtual space with object using 3D/CAD supported photogrammetry(FPHG). this method make it possible to examine patterned injuries of skin, soft tissue and bone for matching instruments in shape, size and angle without altering. Generally, 3D measuring of objects require 3D digitizer or series of photographs taking by metric camera. We developed program which calibrate pictures taken by non-calibrated commercial camera and un distorted image. This image and objet model n can be examined with respect to matching shapes using 3D/CAD system.
Imaging, Three-Dimensional ; Photogrammetry ; Skin ; United Nations

This is a statistical analysis based on the data of legal autopsies performed at the Headquarters of the National Institute Scientific Investigation (NISI), requested by every kind of law enforcement agencies during the year of 2003. NISI is located in Seoul, Korea and has three branches throughout the country. The Seoul NISI covers all legal autopsies in Seoul City, Incheon City and Kyunggi Province and some cases referred from other regions. This report aims to analyse various aspects of 3,167 unusual deaths in Korea, chiefly Seoul and its surrounding area. Followings are the summary of the results. 1. The number of male was 2,311 cases (73%) and that of female 856 (27%). Male was over twice more than female. The forties were 838 cases (26.5%), the thirties 700 (22.1%), and these two decades occupied 48.6%. 2. Unnatural deaths were 1,941 cases (61.3%), natural 1,133 (35.8%), and the unknown 93 (2.9%). Among 1,941 unnatural deaths, suicide was 522 (26.9%), homicide 457 (23.5%), accident 576 (29.7%), and the unclear 386 (19.9%). Homicide occupied 37.1% of trauma, 57.4% of blunt force injury excluding traffic and fall-down injury, and 81.9% of sharp force injury. The homicide rate in asphyxia was 35.5%, but it went up to 69.6% excluding hanging. It showed only 1.0% percent of homicide in poisoning. 3. Traumatic deaths were 902 cases, occupying 46.5% of 1,941 unnatural deaths, followed by poisoning deaths (289 cases) and asphyxial deaths (286 cases). Blunt trauma was 324 cases (35.9%) and the leading cause of death in traumatic death. Poisoning was 289 cases, among which the ethanols were dominant (99cases). Thermal injuries were 192 cases, electrocution 24 cases, and starvation/neglect 11 cases. and 15 cases were directly due to medical procedures.4. Among 1,133 natural deaths, heart diseases were 490 cases (43.2%), and vascular diseases 210 (18.5%), and these two categories were added up to 700 (61.7%). 5. Child deaths under the age of 10 were 135 cases. Homicide was 42 cases (63.6%) out of 60 unnatural deaths. Neonates including still births were the leading period of age in unnatural death, counting 52 cases (38.5%).
Asphyxia ; Autopsy* ; Cause of Death ; Child ; Ethanol ; Female ; Gyeonggi-do ; Heart Diseases ; Homicide ; Humans ; Incheon ; Infant, Newborn ; Korea ; Law Enforcement ; Male ; Parturition ; Poisoning ; Seoul ; Suicide ; Vascular Diseases

Postmortem body inspection at scene and examination of the scene of death are very important in determination of the suspected cause of death, manner of death and interpretation of events leading death, nature of injuries, time of death etc. Actually these works must be performed by well-experienced forensic pathologists. And forensic pathologists should visit the scene of death before the body is removed. In Korea, attendance at scene of death by forensic pathologists is not performed effectively due to low faculty of forensic pathologists and the problem of medicolegal investigation system. But we try to overcome these problems and begin to the work of postmortem body inspection at scene and examination of the scene of body in area of Daejeon Metropolitan city since March, 2003. In this report we recommend the guideline for postmortem body inspection at scene on forensic aspects. We believe that sharing the experience and knowledge about scene investigation including postmortem body inspection at scene and examination of the scene of death is very important to improve and change the environment of medicolegal investigation system in the future.
Cause of Death ; Korea