THE ROLE OF FORENSIC MEDICINE IN SURGICAL COMPLICATIONS: CASE REPORTS OF FAT EMBOLIA AND LIPOABDOMINOPLASTY

In these days, lipoabdominoplasty is an increasingly common surgery, but it is not free from complications, some of them serious which can lead to deaths with unclear causes. In the case of a fatal outcome, the practice of necropsy is used to elucidate cases of deaths of undefined causes. Fat embolism secondary to intraoperative surgical procedures is found to be the main reason for some of these deaths, such as those described in this report. Forensic expertise is an essential investigative step in understanding the causality of possible malpractice of some surgeons in aesthetic procedures and the outcome of undetermined causes of death.