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Fisting is an uncommon and potentially dangerous sexual practice. This is usually a homosexual activity, but can also be a heterosexual or an autoerotic practice. A systematic review of the forensic literature yielded 14 published studies from 8 countries between 1968 and 2016 that met the inclusion/exclusion criteria, illustrating that external anogenital (anal and/or genital) trauma due to fisting is observed in 22.2% and 88.8% (reported consensual and non-consensual intercourse, respectively) of the subjects, while internal injuries are observed in the totality of the patients. Establishing the reliability of the conclusions of these studies is difficult due to a lack of uniformity in methodology used to detect and define injuries. Taking this limit into account, the aim of this article is to give a description of the external and internal injuries subsequent to reported consensual and non-consensual fisting practice, and try to find a relation between this sexual practice, the morphology of the injuries, the correlation with the use of drugs, and the relationship with assailant, where possible. The findings reported in this paper could be useful, especially when concerns of sexual assault arise.

Body packing is a general term used to indicate the internal transportation of drug packages, mainly cocaine, heroin, amphetamines, and methamphetamine, within the gastrointestinal tract. We described two cases of accidental drug intoxication, observed over the last year period, with evidence of intracorporeal drug concealment. The first case concerned a body packer transporting 69 drug packages of heroin adulterated with piracetam. The second body packer transported 16 drug packages of cocaine adulterated with levamisole. For both cases, forensic examination and toxicological analysis of drug packages and biological samples were carried out. Authors also wants to highlight the main medico-legal issues that commonly arise in cases of suspected or ascertained body packers.

A homicidal fatality is presented to demonstrate that the pattern of injuries may suggest the use of an unusual sharp force, a survival-knife, the characteristics of which are in any case well defined. This knife has saw teeth along the back that can leave characteristic scrape marks on the skin.

Objectives:To analyse the role of growth factors (platelet derived growth factor, PDGF; basic fibroblast growth factor, bFGF; interleukin 1, IL-1) in the genesis of myointimal hyperplasia in arterial allografts.Materials:Two groups of experiments were performed: isografts and allografts. The isograft group consisted of 15 inbred Lewis rats in which a 1 cm long segment of aorta was inserted as an abdominal aortic interposition graft. The aortic segments were obtained from syngenic Lewis rats. The allograft group consisted of 15 inbred Lewis rats, in which a 1 cm long segment of aorta was interposed at the abdominal aorta level. The aortic segments were obtained from allogenic Brown-Norway rats.Chief outcome measures:The animals were killed 4 weeks after surgery and were analysed by morphometric analysis (n = 3 for each group). In addition, production of PDGF, bFGF and IL-1 by aortic segments (n = 12 for each group) in organ culture was assessed.Main results:Allografts had more myointimal hyperplasia, than isografts (p < 0.05). PDGF and bFGF production, generally considered to be the cause of myointimal hyperplasia, was not increased in allografts. IL-1 production was higher in allografts (p < 0.001).Main conclusions:Myointimal hyperplasia in aortic allografts is dependent on growth factors produced by the graft itself. These growth factors are different from PDGF and bFGF that generally have been implicated in the genesis of naturally occurring myointimal hyperplasia and atherosclerosis. IL-1 may have a principal role in the genesis of myointimal hyperplasia in arterial allografts.