Raumlufttechnische Anlagen im Operationssaal

The prophylactic benefit of air conditioning systems against infections is currently being very controversially discussed. According to DIN?1946-6 operating theatres are graded into various room classes depending on the requirements. This article describes the special conditions required by oral and maxillofacial surgical interventions and the costs and benefits of such systems will be discussed.     

Maximale Blutalkoholkonzentration nach forciertem Konsum von alkoholfreiem Bier

In recent years sales of non-alcoholic beer have constantly increased. In Germany, so-called non-alcoholic beer may still have an ethanol content of up to 0.5% (by volume). This marginal amount of ethanol might have negative implications for certain groups of persons such as novice drivers. So far no reliable data regarding the blood ethanol concentration after consumption of non-alcoholic beer have been published. Therefore, a drinking experiment was performed as follows: after 5 days of abstinence from ethanol 78 test persons were asked to drink 1.5?l of non-alcoholic beer (ethanol content 0.41–0.42%) within 1?h. Blood samples were taken on a regular basis and analyzed for ethanol by headspace gas chromatography-flame ionization detection (HS-GC-FID). A total of 67 data sets could be interpreted and in 20 test persons ethanol was detected in blood with a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.0005?g/l. The maximum blood ethanol concentration was 0.0056‰. The results of the study suggest that even after consumption of unrealistically high amounts of non-alcoholic beer negative forensic implications are not to be expected.     

Ruptur einer zerebralen arterioven?sen Malformation

Arteriovenous malformations are vascular anomalies characterised by the presence of an arteriovenous shunt in the absence of a normally structured capillary bed. The prevalence of manifestations in the brain is given in specialist literature with a high level of variability. Brain hemorrhages resulting from a lesion of a cerebral arteriovenous malformation and leading to sudden unexpected death are relatively seldom in forensic autopsy material. The forensic significance of this syndrome may be illustrated by the example of a 16-year-old female who was found dead in the bathroom of her parents?? home for reasons which were initially unexplained.     

Synthetische Cannabinoide

In recent years a flood of new psychoactive substances offered as “legal highs” appeared on the drugs market worldwide. In some parts of the world amphetamine-type stimulants are predominant but in Germany synthetic cannabinoids represent the bigger problem. The high dynamics which are maintained by the “cat and mouse game” of scheduling substances and the producers circumventing the regulations by adding new, chemically modified substances, poses a great challenge for both forensic science and toxicology.     

Posterior spinal cord block: a dosimetric study

To determine the optimal width of a midline posterior spinal block (MPSB) (to avoid delivering too great a dose to the cord and too small a dose to adjacent tissue), the authors determined with magnetic resonance (MR) imaging normal ranges of cord depth and width and correlated them with film dosimetric data. In 59 randomly selected patients there was a wide range for both depth and width. The average depths of the anterior and posterior surfaces of the cord were 6.7 cm +/- 1.4 and 5.4 cm +/- 1.3, respectively. The average cord width was 1.6 cm +/- 0.4. Optimal cord block width as a function of cord width was determined for a 6-MV photon beam. The optimal cord block width at the surface (half-value layer [HVL] thickness = 6) varied from 1.5 to 3.0 cm for cord widths of 0.8-2.4 cm, which correspond to two standard deviations from the average. There was no significant dependence on depth of the cord. For optimal treatment outcome, the MPSB width may have to be determined for each patient individually.