2023-04-16 12:29:32
The current head of the Forensic Pathology Service of the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences of Seville since 2003, the doctor Joaquin Lucena Romerohas taken possession this Sunday of his place as academic number of the Royal Academy of Medicine and Surgery of Seville. The chair that he already occupies, proposed in 2022, is the position of Legal and Forensic Medicine within Section IV, Social Medicine, of the institution.
‘The health and social dimension of Forensic Pathology. The sudden death model has been the title of his admission speech that has been answered by Dr. Ricardo González Cámpora. The act has been closed by the president of the Academy, Carlos Infantes Alcón.
Lucena Romero, graduated in Medicine from the University of Córdoba, has been a member of the National Corps of Forensic Doctors of Spain since 1986 and Doctor of Medicine from the Autonomous University of Barcelona since 1997. He is an active member of the European Society of Pathology. Councilor of the Board at the Association for European Cardiovascular Pathology (AECVP) in the period 2011-2018 and chairman of the same between 2018 and 2020.
He was a founding member and first president of the Spanish Society of Forensic Pathology (2009-2017) and editor-in-chief of Cuadernos de Medicina Forense (2004-2013). He is a member of the International Editorial Committee of several specialized journals.
Dr. Lucena dedicated the core of his speech to the work carried out by the Forensic Pathology Service of the Institute of Legal Medicine of Seville since its launch in October 2003. Thus, the new tenured academic has provided the statistics of the 18,732 autopsies carried out in these 19 years (2004-2022) distributed among natural deaths (53%) including sudden deaths and those related to sports and violent activities (47%) such as suicides, casual accidents, traffic accidents, adverse reactions to the use of drugs of abuse, homicides and work accidents.
Sudden death: 26-year-old male
Dr. Lucena has dedicated a special section to the investigation of sudden death between 1-35 years for 18 years (2004-2021) in the province of Seville. In this period and in the aforementioned age group, a total of 339 cases of sudden death of which 79% are of cardiovascular origin and 21% of non-cardiovascular origin. 71% are men with an average age of 26 years. Of these, 27 cases (all males) are associated with carrying out a recreational sporting activity.
In the same way, it has also been pointed out that the study related to sudden death reveals an incidence similar to that described in other international studies (2.2/100,000 inhabitants/year), with a predominance of cardiovascular causes (74%) with a mean age of 27 years.
Among the risk factors related to these deaths are the obesitywhich becomes morbid in 12% of cardiovascular deaths and the consumption of drugs mainly cocaine (6%) and cannabis (4.5%).
Lucena Romero has expressed the health and social importance that has the forensic autopsy, fundamentally in natural deaths that occur suddenly and unexpectedly. In this context, he has stated that “sudden death is a devastating event for both the family and the community since, in most cases, it is the first and last representation of an underlying and unknown health problem, especially all in young people ».
For the expert in Legal and Forensic Medicine, “the autopsy is the first and only opportunity to carry out a correct diagnosis of the disease and that the family receive adequate medical guidance that allows the identification of asymptomatic family members and the prevention of future deaths.”
In this sense, Lucena explained that the Forensic Pathology Service of Seville works in close contact with the Heart Disease Hospital Units Relatives existing in the three university hospitals of Seville, communicating the cases of sudden death that may have a family origin.
Thus, in these units clinical screening is carried out and, where appropriate, genetic analysis of the proband and first degree relatives. The ultimate goal is to make it possible prevention of the event so its impact on public health is evident.
suicide
From the point of view of violent deaths, the most significant fact that Dr. Lucena has highlighted is that suicide in Sevilleas in the rest of Spain, is the leading cause of violent death. From 2004 to 2022 have been studied 2,820 suicides which represents 34% of all violent deaths.
The age range is very wide since it goes from 10 to 103 years. It is three times more frequent in men than in women, in the 50s and the most frequent mechanisms are the hanging and the precipitation. draw attention suicide in children under 16 of which there have been 14 cases, the youngest case being a 10-year-old male.
For Dr. Lucena, corresponding academic by election to the Royal Academy of Medicine and Surgery of Seville since 2013, joining the list of number academics is “A great honorbut also a responsibility» to which he hopes to respond with his work and dedication.
Interestingly, two of his professors from the Cordoba School of Medicine, Pedro Sánchez Guijo and Carlos Pera Madrazo, are also number academics. “Sharing the platform of this learned institution with them is a joy that I never imagined,” explains the new academic.
Lucena believes that her “long experience and work as specialist in legal medicine and forensic medicine It can contribute very positively to the activities of the Royal Academy, mainly in its role as a consultative body for the Administration of Justice in the issuance of expert opinions”.
Currently, the Royal Academy of Seville has 40 number academics, 21 Honorary Scholars, six Honorary Scholars, eight Scholarship Scholars, two Institutional Scholars, and 375 Corresponding Scholars. In the coming months, three elected academicians and one academician of erudition will take up new positions.
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