Doberentz E, Wegner A, Geile J, Madea B. Natural cardiac death after stent implantation with iatrogenic injury of a coronary artery.
Forensic Sci Med Pathol 2019;
16:366-369. [PMID:
31713779 DOI:
10.1007/s12024-019-00195-2]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 10/15/2019] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
In forensic practice, autopsies are regularly carried out in cases of suspected medical malpractice to determine whether a treatment resulted in death. Intraoperative deaths, as well as deaths shortly after an operation, can be particularly suspicious as iatrogenic. We report a case of a 75-year-old woman with a complaint of intermittent angina pectoris who underwent cardiac catheterization. Intra-interventionally, coronary artery dissection occurred and was stabilized by the placement of two stents. After this procedure, the patient suffered from chest pain. At 5.5 h after the procedure ended, the woman suddenly and unexpectedly died. At forensic autopsy, a hemopericardium with cardiac tamponade was found to have been caused by the rupture of a myocardial infarction that was several days old and had remained clinically unrecognized. This case report illustrates the importance of forensic autopsies in terms of external quality assurance in medicine.
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