Medizinische Universität Graz Austria/Österreich - Forschungsportal - Medical University of Graz
Gewählte Publikation:
Mattersdorfer, E.
The value of forensic CT and MR imaging in the assessment of medical maltreatment
[ Diplomarbeit ] Medical University of Graz; 2008. pp. 51
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- Autor*innen der Med Uni Graz:
- Betreuer*innen:
- Vollmann Robert
- Yen Kathrin
- Altmetrics:
- Abstract:
- Background: The growing number of medical malpractice claims causes that the forensic assessment of these cases makes up a considerable part of a forensic pathologists work. It is important to constantly improve the quality of these assessments, and therefore to add forensic imaging techniques to the classical forensic methods. The rapid development of CT and MR imaging induced the idea to use these techniques for the documentation of medical malpractice cases, intravital as well as postmortem. Materials and Methods: In cases of suspected lethal medical error claims, the forensic imaging was analyzed regarding its power to improve the quality of the forensic evaluation. Therefore, the corpses were scanned by CT and MR techniques, the data were post-processed on a workstation, interpreted and subsequently correlated with the findings of classical autopsy. Results: It turned out that imaging gave an excellent overview of body structures as well as of the position of foreign materials. Further it revealed findings which could easily be overseen or which were not possible to detect at autopsy. It also proved to be useful for the determination of gestational age. Conclusion: With the help of forensic imaging, the sequence of events can be better comprehended by the forensic pathologist, which plays an important role in the court proceeding of medical errors. In summary, forensic imaging offers a great potential for the improvement of the forensic examination of medical malpractice cases.