Considerations on cases of diffuse axonal injury autopsied in the Institute of Forensic Medicine Iasi, Romania

CONSIDERATIONS ON CASES OF DIFFUSE AXONAL INJURY AUTOPSIED IN THE (Abstract) : Traumatic brain injury (TBI), mainly caused by road traffic accidents and falls, is one of the main causes of mortality. Survivors often present with debilitating motor, sensory and cognitive symptoms, leading to a reduced quality of life and a profound economic burden on society. Material and methods : The study was conducted by analyzing forensic cases autopsied at the Institute of Forensic Medicine Iasi, between 2015-2020, diagnosed antemortem with traumatic brain injury and diffuse axonal injury (DAI). The analysis includes a retrospective study of the forensic necropsy cases conducted between 2015-2020. Data were loaded and processed using statistical functions in SPSS 18.0 at the 95% significance level. Results: The analysis of forensic cases autopsied at the Institute of Forensic Medicine Iasi between 2015-2020 showed a number of 7818 autopsied cases, of which 3545 were violent deaths. Of these, 567 had as cause of death craniocerebral trauma; of these only 70 cases were accompanied by the imaging diagnosis of DAI, which corresponds to 12% of all cases of craniocerebral trauma. Conclusions : The imaging diagnosis of DAI was refuted by pathological examination in 24 of the cases, out of a total of 70 patients with a radiological diagnosis of DAI, corresponding to 34.28% of cases. The survival rate of rural patients was significantly higher (14.27 vs. 7.33 days; p=0.03). Patients with DAI have a high mortality, supported by a 50% decrease after the first week in the chance of survival.