No abstract

Penetrating wounds of the neck are often life-threatening. The victims are exposed to vascular and laryngotracheal lesions. The purpose of this work is to report the various aspects of the management of penetrating wounds in our context and to make the medico-legal assessment of incapacity in the criminal sense or total incapacity for work. This is a retrospective study (2002-2014) on thirty-nine (39) cases of penetrating neck wounds, received at the ENT departments of the Aristide Le Dantec and Fann University Hospital Centers. Patients were predominantly male, representing 94% of cases with an average age of 27 years. Seventy (70%) of the accidents occurred in the region of Dakar. In 42% of cases, the circumstance of occurrence was a fight or an assault. The weapon used in most cases by the aggressor was a cutter or a knife. The average waiting time was 37 hours with extremes of 02 and 216 hours. Surgically, all patients had been examined under general anesthesia. In terms of lesions, 37 cases had profound cervical muscle injuries, i.e. 94%. There were 17 vascular lesions (43%). The medico-legal distribution of patients showed that among them, 10% had a total incapacity to work exceeding 21 days. The determination of total incapacity for work is an important medical procedure that requires capability and experience. The doctor must not fall into the trap of the confusion between the TIW on the criminal level and the TIW on the civil level. He must limit medically and should not make judgments.

The total hip prosthesis is the ultimate treatment of the hip joint's wear. It is a delicate surgery and the most common replacements. This study was performed in the Orthopaedic-Traumatology Department of Public Health Establishment of Aristide Le Dantec in Dakar. It aimed to determine the complications of our total hip and highlight their forensic implications. This is a retrospective study from patients collected from January 2000 up to December 2010. The collection of elements records was performed for each patient, based on a file including age, sex, primary-location's etiology, and types of complications of total hip prostheses. The analysis of these complications has shown that infections, poorly lit information, poor operational planning and technical foul may be the main cause of a forensic implication. This is a retrospective study from patients collected from January 2000 up to December 2010. No lawsuit has been recorded for the complications identified in this work. This is due to the belief in fate, ignorance of the victims and solidarity of the medical profession, the high cost and slow pace of judicial proceedings. The diagnosis of total hip prosthesis complications is mainly based on imaging tests. The absence of scintigraphy in our center remains a limit to the early diagnosis of multiple complications and the proper establishment of the epidemiological profile of these lesions. Taking consciences patients of their rights encourages a legitimate requirement repair the harm inflicted.

Sudden cardiac death (SCD) generally refers to sudden cardiovascular death of a person with or without pre-existing heart disease. This is a retrospective study conducted at the Department of Anatomy and Pathological Cytology at Aristide Le Dantec Hospital in Senegal. This study covers a period of 7 years from January 1 st , 2000 to December 31 st , 2006. During this 7-year period we collected 235 cases of sudden cardiovascular death out of a total of 3717 forensic autopsies, representing a frequency of 6.32%. Sudden cardiovascular deaths accounted for 75.3% of all 312 sudden deaths. 96.1% were black compared to 3.9% Caucasians. The average age of the patients was 46.86 years with extremes ranging from 17 to 86 years. The most affected age group was between 50-59 years old, representing 23.4% of the cases. The sex ratio was 4.3 in favour of men. Men aged 50-59 were the most affected, while women were more affected in the 20-29 age group. Cardiomyopathies constituted 54.9% with 90% of dilated cardiomyopathies of which 75% were male and 10% of hypertrophic cardiomyopathies more frequent also in men. Valvulopathies came in 3 rd position with 3.4% of the cases and in 75% of the cases they were poly-valvulopathies. Atherosclerosis was incriminated in 2.5% of the cases and aortic localization was the most represented. Aortic dissection was implicated in 6 cases out of 235 or 2.5%. It was isolated in 4 cases (without other cardiac conditions), and in the other 2 cases it was accompanied by other cardiac lesions including hypertrophy, pericarditis and endocarditis. The other causes found were interauricular communication (n = 1) and pericarditis (n = 2). Sudden cardiovascular death is a major global public health problem. The lack of epidemiological data on sudden death in Africa motivated our work, which led us to note that 75.3% of all sudden deaths in adults were of cardiovascular origin.