Sudden death due to cerebral leukemic hemorrhage occurring after acupuncture treatment for gingival bleeding.
A 45-year-old woman who experienced stomalgia and gingival bleeding for several days died unexpectedly after acupuncture treatment. At autopsy, trivial injuries on the liver and the stomach and mild hemoperitoneum due to improper acupuncture were found. Also,acute lymphoblastic leukemia and hyperleukocytosis were diagnosed by postmortem examinations. Intracranial hemorrhage due to undiagnosed acute lymphoblastic leukemia was identified as the cause of death.Moreover, the relationship between therapeutic misadventure and death was also determined. We suggest that undiagnosed leukemia should be considered as a differential diagnosis when sudden death occurs owing to intracranial hemorrhage. If therapeutic misadventure was involved,it is also of great importance to assess the relationship between that and death in forensic expertise.
Li
Shangxun
S
Faculty of Forensic Medicine, Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, No.13 Hangkong Rd, Wuhan, People’s Republic of China.
Liu
Dan
D
He
Guanglong
G
Duan
Yijie
Y
Zhou
Hongyan
H
Zhou
Yiwu
Y
D015670:Acupuncture Therapy / Q000009:adverse effects*; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000473:pathology; D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D005260:Female; D049429:Forensic Pathology; D005884:Gingival Hemorrhage / Q000628:therapy; D006408:Hematoma, Subdural / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D020300:Intracranial Hemorrhages / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology*; D007964:Leukocytosis / Q000175:diagnosis; D008318:Malpractice; D008875:Middle Aged; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000175:diagnosis*