International journal of legal medicine
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Cases of fatal poisoning among drug addicts examined at the institutes of forensic medicine in Aarhus, Denmark (n = 238) and Oslo, Norway (n = 263) are compared and discussed on the basis of the availability of illicit and medical drugs during the 1980s. The annual number of deaths among drug addicts in age groups over 30 years increased, but there was no increase in the number of deaths among younger drug addicts in either country. More than 80% of the drug addicts in both samples were men. ⋯ The registered medical drugs propoxyphene, methadone and ketobemidone accounted for half of the Danish cases but only a small number of the Norwegian cases. Amphetamine caused few deaths in either country. Alcohol and benzodiazepines were present in more than one-third of the cases in both countries, indicating frequent use of these substances.
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Post-traumatic myocardial infarction is a well-known although rare complication of blunt chest traumas. In cases of proximally located damage to the coronary arteries, modern vascular surgery such as bypass operations may be lifesaving. In this paper we describe a case, where a healthy 35-year-old man developed a lethal myocardial infarction 8 days after a chest trauma caused by a moped. ⋯ At autopsy a hematoma originating from a side branch was found to compress the left anterior descending coronary artery immediately distal to its origin from the main stem. This finding suggests that bypass surgery could have saved the life of this young man. Patients with evidence of myocardial ischemia following chest traumas should be transferred to a cardiac center as early as possible.
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Bee and wasp stings represent an uncommon cause of death. In a retrospective study of all fatalities due to venomous animals in Sweden during a 10-year-period, we found 19 fatalities due to wasps, 1 due to bees but none due to snake bite. This gives an annual incidence of 0.2 per million inhabitants. ⋯ Symptoms and death occurred within minutes after the sting. The autopsy findings were in most cases non-specific. Although uncommon, the possibility of a fatal insect sting should be considered in unwitnessed deaths occurring outdoors in summertime.