Robotic surgery and malpractice.

Robotic surgery has undergone exponential growth since the last two decades. Employment of new technologies in surgery creates many ethical challenges concerning the advantages and disadvantages different from conventional surgery, ensuring safety of the new technology, giving permission to surgeons for using new technology, the way of informing patients before undergoing a new technology or technique, and the responsibilities of surgeons, firms and hospitals to the patients etc. In this review, robotic surgery was discussed from malpractice perspective.

The review of autopsy cases of accidental childhood deaths in Istanbul.

Children are at increased risk for various causes of injury from accidents. Accidents are, by far, the leading cause of death among children and adolescents. The aim of this study is to evaluate the lethal childhood accidents in Istanbul by age groups. Reports of autopsies performed between 2001 and 2005 in the Morgue Department of the Council of Forensic. Medicine in Istanbul (n :16853) are examined retrospectively. 833 deaths from accidents in children aged 0-18 years are investigated into the study. The parameters of age, gender, types of accidents and causes of death are evaluated. The accidents account for 47.3% of the deaths among children aged 0-18 years. Of 833 cases, 601 (73%) are male and 232 (27%) are female. The female to male ratio is 1/2.6. The highest rate of death from accidents is at the group of 15-18 years. The primary causes of accidental childhood deaths are motor vehicle accidents (23.1%), followed by drowning (20,1%), poisoning (15.7%), and fall from height (15.5%). The incidence and types of trauma vary with socio-economic status and culture. Istanbul, where this study is conducted in, has approximately 3000 autopsy number annually. Therefore, it provides an important database.

Comparison of the clinical diagnosis and subsequent autopsy findings in medical malpractice.

The rate of diagnostic error has not declined over the last 30 years despite the improvement in diagnosis methods. Today, the probability to encounter a major diagnostic change in autopsy is still high. The special autopsy that provides clinicians the necessary feedback is performed seldom in our country. This study has been started upon the claim that the malpractice cases in scope of forensic cases could be a very useful database. About 525 cases with faulty medical application that resulted in death have been encountered according to the cases that have been sent to the Forensic Medical Institution, which has been the consultative authority of the Ministry of Justice between the years 2001 and 2005. Among these, 375 cases on which autopsies have been conducted are included in the scope of the study. The cases with and without major diagnostic changes have been compared in aspects of gender, age groups, and period spent in health units. When the concordance between autopsy and clinical diagnosis for the 375 cases that were included in the study is examined, it can be seen that clinical diagnosis is verified with autopsy in 49.1% of the cases whereas neither autopsy nor clinical diagnosis was encountered in 14.7% of them. The diseases where diagnostic faults are mostly encountered are ruptured aortic aneurysm, myocardial infarction and pneumonia. The majority of the cases without a clinical diagnosis comprises of complications that occur after operations. In the study, considerable major diagnostic changes were realized after autopsy, which shows that autopsy has an important place in Turkey in spite of the improved methods of diagnosis. Also, in the cases with major diagnostic changes, the medical malpractice rate was high. This shows that autopsy is influential in revealing medical malpractice failures. In the study, we found out that the number of autopsies was high in the cases with a malpractice claim. We aim to increase this number. We are sure that such increment would increase decision accuracy.

Autopsy profiles of malpractice cases.

Claims for medical malpractice and the number of lawsuits filed thereafter are increasing in Turkey as is the case throughout the world. In the present study all files issued by the associated boards of the Council of Forensic Medicine between 2001 and 2005 were studied and of those, 525 death cases in which there was a medical malpractice claim were included. 303 of the cases (57.7%) were male, 215 (41%) were female, while no gender was mentioned in seven cases (1.3%). The age of the subjects ranged between 0 and 90, with an average of 26.8. 147 cases (28%) were related to Emergency Units. 92% of the cases (482 cases) were resolved in the Council of Forensic Medicine, Ministry of Justice. 167 of the resolved cases were concluded as medical malpractice.

Intracranial sewing needle in a man with seizure: a case of child abuse?

Physical abuse in infancy can cause persistent neurological deficits. Although intracranial foreign bodies are generally secondary to penetrating trauma or surgical procedures, rarely they also occur as a result of child abuse. A 32-year-old man presented with the complaint of generalized tonic clonic seizures to the Neurology Department of Marmara, University Hospital. Computerized tomography (CT) scan revealed a sewing needle located within the temporal lobe. The location and the position of the needle suggested that it must have been introduced in infancy through the lamdoid suture before the closure of it, as an unsuccessful deliberate homicide attempt or accidental injury.

Deaths from drug overdose and toxicity in Turkey: 1997-2001.

Turkey is located on the main overland connection between Asia and Europe, making the country potentially vulnerable to drug trafficking and its associated harms. The aim of the present study is to explore the frequency of all deaths from drug overdose and toxicity in Turkey and to describe some of the characteristics of these deaths. We collected data on all deaths from drugs in Turkey between 1997 and 2001 using records from the Council of Forensic Medicine. Data obtained from autopsy reports were retrospectively analyzed. In the present study, 374 deaths from drugs were reported in Turkey, with a mortality rate of 0.17 per 100,000 population. Highest mortality rates were found in Istanbul (0.83) and Gaziantep (0.71). The mean age was 34.0, and most cases (71.7%) were below the age of 40. The proportion of female cases was 13.6%. Opiates were implicated in 91.5% of deaths and benzodiazepines in 25.9%. Two fifths (38.8%) of the cases involved use of more than 1 drug. In 36.6% of cases, the route of final drug administration was by injection. The most common location of death was at a home (33.7%). Interventions to reduce drug use nationally are urgently required. International cooperation in social-educational activities, scientific research, and security measures is essential for this war.

Deaths in Turkish military services, 1998-2000.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the causes of death in the military in Turkey and to evaluate the previously obtained data relating to the characteristics peculiar to the army in those cases of death that have acquired a juridical attribute. In this study, the cases presented in the years 1998 and 2000 have been investigated retrospectively. Seventy military cases investigated within a period of 3 years were all men. Except for the 20 cases in which the cause of death could not be determined, 30 of 50 cases in our study are included in the group of "natural deaths" and 20 are included in the group of "forced deaths." In conclusion, natural causes are still the leading cause of death in Turkey, and regarding this, it can be suggested that these deaths could be preventable by better health care and more careful premilitary health examinations.

Suicidal deaths in childhood and adolescence.

Suicide has been reported as the second or third most common cause of death in children and adolescents worldwide. In this study, cases of under the age of 19 years submitted to the Institute of Forensic Medicine, First Specialization Board between 1996 and 2000 as suicides by the Board were evaluated retrospectively. The cases included in this study were the cases bearing locally questionable components, so had been submitted to the evaluations by the Board in order to eradicate the doubts. A total of 43 cases were investigated regarding age, gender, cause of death, manner of death, place of death, time of death, and the risk factors. Of the 43 cases evaluated, 31 cases were female and 12 cases were male. The notable suicide method was found to be firearms. Although it was clear that that not all of the suicide cases in this age group had been submitted to the Institute of Forensic Medicine, the most striking result of this study, nevertheless, was that girls constituted the 72% of suicidal deaths in this age group.

Fatalities due to methyl alcohol intoxication in Turkey: an 8-year study.

The aim of this study is to examine methyl alcohol poisoning cases from the medico-legal point of view. The records of the Morgue Department of Council of the Forensic Medicine were reviewed retrospectively for all methyl alcohol poisonings for the period of 27.10.1992 and 30.05.2001. The victim's age, sex, death year, death place, methyl alcohol blood levels, the source of methyl alcohol, accompanying laboratory results and histopathologic tissue changes were recorded. The number of deaths due to the methyl alcohol poisoning was 271 during that period of time. Two hundred and forty-two of the (89.3%) total 271 methyl alcohol fatalities were men and 29 (10.7%) of were women. The largest age group was 36-40 years old, followed by 41-45. The methyl alcohol blood concentrations ranged widely from 50 to 755 mg for per 100 ml. There were 222 cases (81.9%) with the methyl alcohol blood concentrations over 100 mg/dl. Twenty-nine (10.7%) victims were poisoned through the consumption of cologne and three of them with alcoholic beverage named "Raki". Consumed products were not known in all other cases because of insufficient patient history and data. As a conclusion, regarding the distribution according to years, mortality due to methyl alcohol intoxication in our country have been proceeding on a certain level. In order to decrease the mortality due to methyl alcohol intoxication, some precautions should be developed that could prevent the production and consumption of alcoholic beverages illegally produced.