Natural Causes Research Articles

Things will have to change? Analysing the Spanish transition to democracy from an elite perspective

ABSTRACT Authoritarian elites may play an essential role in transitioning democracies, but little is known about the fate of these elites beyond that of the top leaders. This article offers the first panel-data study of authoritarian elites in a transitional democracy. We focus on Spain, a paradigmatic case of successful democratization from above, and rely on an original dataset to measure quantitatively the professional careers of more than 600 members of the Francoist elites in Spain. We have measured the relative importance of each job that members of Francoist elites had before and after the democratization process, gathering information on more than 5,400 jobs over 50 years. Our results suggest a positive relationship between the individual’s position during the dictatorship and the democracy. While there was a change in the importance of Francoist political elites after the transition, economic elites were barely affected by the transition to democracy. For that reason, natural death and retirement were the most common reasons behind their disappearance from the spheres of power.

Tendency of unnatural deaths in Faisalabad city during 2023- a retrospective study.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE: Unnatural deaths reflect the social and mental setup of a society. The objective was to assess the trend of unnatural deaths in Faisalabad during the year 2023 and determine the gender and age group mostly affected and the means employed. METHODOLOGY: This cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out in the Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, Punjab Medical College, Faisalabad, from the data of all victims of unnatural deaths from 1st January 2023 to 31st December 2023. Data was collected from respective official Police and post-mortem reports and recorded on pre-structured proformas and categorized based on the manner of death, type of weapon, age groups involved, and gender. RESULTS: Out of a total of 266 autopsies, 227 were males and 39 females (5.8:1). Majority of the victims belonged to the 30-39 -year age group i.e. 100 (37.6%) followed by the 20-29-year age group with 49 (18.4%) cases. The manner of death was homicidal in 198 (74.4%) cases followed by 46 (17.3%) accidental and 14 (5.3%) suicide while the manner of death remained undetermined in 5 (1.8%) cases. Firearms claimed 116 (43.6%) lives followed by poisoning (61,22.9%) cases. October experienced the maximum number of cases (30,11.3%). CONCLUSION: Males are the major victims of unnatural deaths especially individuals in the middle age group. Firearm weapons are the major weapon of assault due to their easy availability. There is a dire need for strict implementation of laws on buying and possession of firearms.

Archive and library special collections as proxy data: reconstructing the American chestnut blight through digitized collections

This paper discusses the design and implications of a study that explored the potential for archives and library special collections to serve as historical environmental proxy data to support the reconstruction of the spatiotemporal spread of the American chestnut blight in Tennessee. By collecting, reconciling, and analyzing heterogeneous mundane primary source materials from 1904 to 1950, the major period of infection and tree loss, the case study reached beyond conventional evidence to ask new questions of nontraditional sources. QGIS and Python were used to reconcile and model nonstandardized and ambiguous natural-language keywords derived from these sources to identify trends and patterns that may not be evident from traditional document analysis. The paper argues that the contributions made by textual and visual information fragments found in these materials support an expansion of the term “proxy data” beyond what is currently understood as paleoclimate archives, i.e., physical, chemical, and biological materials preserved within the geologic record (USGS 2022). Such socially constructed records found in archives and library special collections offer additional qualitative and quantitative information about historical climate change to support modeling variable fluctuations over time. They can also provide a rich and dynamic context for the natural causes and human interventions that, in combination, act on the environment. However, the study also identifies significant limitations in the digital accessibility of relevant archival sources and a lack of specificity in their descriptions. These need to be addressed if integrating such source material into scientific studies is to become more widespread and scalable.

Environmental literacy profile in Bantul, Special Region of Yogyakarta

Environmental issues are occurring more frequently, both due to natural causes and human activities. If left unchecked, human activities can worsen environmental conditions. Bantul Regency in the Special Region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia, is one of the regions grappling with this issue, primarily due to waste management and industrial activities. Environmental issues are related to environmental literacy. The lack of education, awareness, and knowledge in society can degrade environmental quality. Environmental literacy plays an important role in enhancing knowledge as well as changing the attitudes and behaviors of society towards the environment. Therefore, it is important to instill environmental literacy in individuals to improve our attitudes towards the environment. This study aims to provide an overview of students's environmental literacy in Bantul Regency. The research uses a survey method conducted in Bantul Regency from September to November 2023. The population of this study includes all 10th-grade students from public high schools in Bantul Regency. The sample consists of 300 10th-grade students from public high schools in the sub-districts of Bantul, Banguntapan, Sewon, Jetis, Piyungan, Imogiri, Pajangan, Srandakan, Sedayu, and Dlingo. The study's results show that the environmental literacy profile of 10th-grade students in Bantul Regency falls into the "average" category, with a percentage score of 65.96%. The highest score in the competency domain is found in Bantul City (81.90%) and falls into the "good" category, while the lowest score is in Dlingo Sub-district (60.93%), categorized as "average" The highest score in the affective domain is in Dlingo Sub-district (70.25%), categorized as "average" while the lowest score is in Jetis Sub-district (66.67%), also categorized as "average." The highest score in the behavior domain is found in Imogiri Sub-district (64.91%), categorized as "average" while the lowest score is in Srandakan Sub-district (55.30%), categorized as "low."

Elderly Suicidal Deaths- An Observational Study

The suicide was 3rd leading cause of unnatural death among elderly age group. The suicide death of an older subject is less impactful on the people than the loss of someone younger, particularly of adolescents and of young adults. For this reason, suicide in the elderly population is a phenomenon that is often ignored or neglected, drawing less attention than suicide in younger population. An Observational study of suicides among elderly age group ≥60 years was conducted in the Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology north bengal medical college sirajganj.The data was taken from 250 beded sirajganj general hospital from Police inquests, hospital records, toxicological reports and suicide letters were collected by police and studied. The total elderly suicidal deaths during the period of 3 years were 112, more common among 60-64 years aged people. Educated, middle class, joint family and different categories of professional background with physical ailments were common factors in the study. The methods used for suicide ranged from poisoning, hanging, burns to fall from height. The results were analysed and compared with previous research studies and this study matched with results of several other studies. This is possibly due to beginning of dependency and stressful life following their retirements. Suicide is the 3rd leading unnatural cause of death among elderly which is not an impulsive act. Intervention in the aged suicide will be a complex task and should involve changes at different levels of the current aged care system.

Conditional cash transfers and mortality in people hospitalised with psychiatric disorders: A cohort study of the Brazilian Bolsa Família Programme.

Psychiatric patients experience lower life expectancy compared to the general population. Conditional cash transfer programmes (CCTPs) have shown promise in reducing mortality rates, but their impact on psychiatric patients has been unclear. This study tests the association between being a Brazilian Bolsa Família Programme (BFP) recipient and the risk of mortality among people previously hospitalised with any psychiatric disorders. This cohort study utilised Brazilian administrative datasets, linking social and health system data from the 100 Million Brazilian Cohort, a population-representative study. We followed individuals who applied for BFP following a single hospitalisation with a psychiatric disorder between 2008 and 2015. The outcome was mortality and specific causes, defined according to International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision (ICD-10). Cox proportional hazards models estimated the hazard ratio (HR) for overall mortality and competing risks models estimated the HR for specific causes of death, both associated with being a BFP recipient, adjusted for confounders, and weighted with a propensity score. We included 69,901 psychiatric patients aged between 10 and 120, with the majority being male (60.5%), and 26,556 (37.99%) received BFP following hospitalisation. BFP was associated with reduced overall mortality (HR 0.93, 95% CI 0.87,0.98, p 0.018) and mortality due to natural causes (HR 0.89, 95% CI 0.83, 0.96, p < 0.001). Reduction in suicide (HR 0.90, 95% CI 0.68, 1.21, p = 0.514) was observed, although it was not statistically significant. The BFP's effects on overall mortality were more pronounced in females and younger individuals. In addition, 4% of deaths could have been prevented if BFP had been present (population attributable risk (PAF) = 4%, 95% CI 0.06, 7.10). BFP appears to reduce mortality rates among psychiatric patients. While not designed to address elevated mortality risk in this population, this study highlights the potential for poverty alleviation programmes to mitigate mortality rates in one of the highest-risk population subgroups.

Psychological Autopsy: A Powerful Tool in Forensic Investigations

Background: A psychological autopsy is a post-mortem investigative tool used to carry out a retrospective reconstruction of a missing subject’s life. The method includes gathering information from all the potentially involved parties, which may indicate the relevant elements directly or indirectly to trace the victim’s experience and identify personality traits, lifestyle, and interpersonal relationships. Discussion: Psychological autopsies are mainly performed during criminal investigations to identify the cause of death and the specific circumstances (natural, accidental, suicidal, or homicidal death). In addition, from an epidemiological point of view, this method aims to collect the relevant information about an individual’s behavior, circumstances, and reasons for their death to identify common risk factors to prevent new suicides. Although less frequently, this tool can also serve other purposes, such as the legal validity estimation of pre-death actions. Moreover, it may be used to assess whether mistakes have been made in treating people undergoing medical or psychological treatment. Conclusions: Currently, this methodology still has a limited diffusion on the Italian and European scenes due to the lack of standardized guidelines and substantial relevant scientific literature. It is the main factor affecting the tool’s reliability, validity, and systematic application in forensic investigations.

Carbon dioxide fluxes and the dominant role of vegetation in recently created and reference Gulf Coast marshes

AbstractCoastal wetlands are one of the most productive ecosystems on Earth with the capacity to sequester large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2). Wetland loss due to anthropogenic and natural causes reduces the carbon (C) storage capacity and potentially releases previously fixed C in biomass and soil to the water column and atmosphere through decomposition. Coastal wetland restoration has the potential to mitigate some of the C losses depending on the balance of C fluxes. However, the role of vegetation and environmental conditions in governing rates of C accumulation in restoration sites is not well resolved. The purpose of this study was to examine seasonal C fluxes, specifically, gross ecosystem productivity (GEP), ecosystem respiration (ER), and net ecosystem exchange (NEE) of CO2 in unvegetated and vegetated (Spartina alterniflora) areas of a 2‐year old created marsh, and S. alterniflora and Spartina patens communities in a “natural” reference brackish marsh. S. alterniflora‐dominated areas were sinks for CO2 in both the newly created and reference marsh with an average CO2 uptake rate of 7.0 ± 1.0 μmol m−2 s−1. The unvegetated areas in the newly created marsh and S. patens areas in the reference marsh had approximately net neutral CO2 fluxes. S. alterniflora areas of the created marsh had similar carbon fluxes to that in the reference marsh, despite a much lower soil organic matter content. Because vegetation develops much faster than soil properties, restored marshes can be a C sink equivalent to natural marshes as soon as the marsh is vegetated. Ecosystem productivity and C assimilation in S. alterniflora areas of the reference marsh were enhanced by lower elevations (up to 6 cm) and higher soil bulk density (up to 0.28 g cm−3). At similar elevations, S. alterniflora in both the created and reference marshes was a greater C sink than S. patens areas of the reference marsh. Our findings illustrate that establishment of vegetation is critical to promoting C sink functions in created marshes and, notably, species do matter.

Clinical biomarker-based biological age predicts deaths in Brazilian adults: the ELSA-Brasil study.

Biological age is a construct that seeks to evaluate the biological wear and tear process of the organism that cannot be observed by chronological age. We estimate individuals' biological age based on biomarkers from multiple systems and validate it through its association with mortality from natural causes. Biological age was estimated in 12,109 participants (6621 women and 5488 men) from the first visit of the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil) who had valid data for the biomarkers used in the analyses. Biological age was estimated using the Klemera and Doubal method. The difference between chronological age and biological age (Δage) was computed. Cox proportional hazard models stratified by sex were used to assess whether Δage was associated with mortality risk after a median follow-up of 9.1years. The accuracy of the models was estimated by the area under the curve (AUC). Δage had equal mean for men and women, with greater variability for men. Cox models showed that every 1-year increase in Δage was associated with increased mortality in men (HR (95% CI) 1.21; 1.17-1.25) and women (HR (95% CI) 1.24; 1.15-1.34), independently of chronological age. Results of the AUC demonstrated that the predictive power of models that only included chronological age (AUC chronological age = 0.7396) or Δage (AUC Δage = 0.6842) was lower than those that included both, chronological age and Δage (AUC chronological age + Δage = 0.802), in men. This difference was not observed in women. We demonstrate that biological age is strongly related to mortality in both genders and is a valid predictor of death in Brazilian adults, especially among men.

Network analysis of prolonged grief disorder and anxiety symptoms among bereaved Chinese parents who lost their only child

Parents who have lost their only child and cannot or do not wish to adopt or have another child are labeled Shidu parents. Network analysis is used to examine symptom-level interactions in mental disorders. This study aimed to investigate the comorbidity network structure of prolonged grief disorder (PGD) and anxiety symptoms among Shidu parents and compare network differences between child loss from natural and unnatural causes. Key findings revealed that faintness, feeling afraid, panic, and meaninglessness are central symptoms, while meaninglessness, inability to trust others, and nightmares are bridge symptoms. The strongest connection in the PGD–anxiety network is between avoidance and shock, and the edge between meaninglessness and weakness strongly links the two communities. Shidu parents who experience unnatural loss have a stronger edge between inability to trust others and bitterness/anger. Highlighting these symptoms may help interventions address the comorbidities associated with PGD and anxiety among Shidu parents.

Temporal shift in groundwater fauna in southwestern Germany

Abstract. Groundwater is an important source of freshwater; drinking water; and service water for irrigation, industrial and geothermal uses. It is also the largest terrestrial freshwater biome in the world. In many areas, this habitat is naturally or anthropogenically threatened. This study uses long-term groundwater data from southwestern Germany to identify shifts in groundwater fauna due to natural or anthropogenic impacts. Comprehensive analysis of metazoan groundwater fauna and abiotic parameters from 16 monitoring wells over 2 decades revealed no overall temporal trends in faunal abundance or biodiversity (in terms of number of species) and no significant large-scale trends in abiotic parameters. While 9 wells out of 16 show stable ecological and hydrochemical conditions at a local level, the remaining wells exhibit shifting or fluctuating faunal parameters. At some locations, these temporal changes are linked to natural causes, such as decreasing dissolved oxygen contents or fluctuating temperatures. A multivariate PHATE (Potential of Heat-diffusion for Affinity-based Trajectory Embedding) analysis suggests that, beside the hydrogeological setting, varying contents of sediment and detritus impact faunal abundance. By examining aerial images of the surroundings of individual wells, we found that anthropogenic impacts, such as construction sites and surface sealing, can cause significant shifts in groundwater fauna and changes in the ecological status in positive as well as negative direction. However, variable faunal compositions and abundances were also observed for sites with very stable abiotic conditions in anthropogenically less affected areas such as the Black Forest. These findings indicate that hydro(geo)logical changes and surface conditions, such as land use, should be assessed in line with hydrochemical parameters to better understand changes in groundwater fauna. Accordingly, reference sites for natural conditions in ecological assessment and biomonitoring schemes for groundwater protection should be selected carefully.

A case of sudden natural death in custody: Medico-legal perplexity in determining the manner of death

Death arising during police custody or in prison always raises suspicion and creates public rage regarding the cause and particularly the manner of death. On the contrary, in most instances, the manner of death is natural as reported in many literature and the role of an autopsy surgeon is vital in determining the same. Among the natural causes of death during custody cardiac causes contribute the majority of fatality. Here we present a 42-year-old male prisoner who was brought dead to the casualty with history of sudden onset of breathlessness and giddiness. On autopsy, there were no signs of injuries both externally and internally. In the heart right coronary artery showed near complete occlusion 2 cm from its origin, left anterior descending, and left circumflex artery showed 60% and 80% occlusion respectively. The walls of the coronaries, and aorta showed deposition of calcified and ulcerated atheromatous plaques (Grade VI atherosclerosis). Histopathology showed evidence of atherosclerosis by deposition of calcified fibroatheromatous plaques and multiple vessels showed critical narrowing. Chemical analysis of viscera was turned negative. The final opinion to the cause of death was acute myocardial infarction (sudden natural death). This case report emphasizes the need for a complete and meticulous forensic autopsy which aids in solving the grievances of the deceased’s family on the cause and manner of death and also aids in the legal standing of the country.

A Study of Constitutional Protections Against Custodial Violence – A Critical Analysis

The destruction of India's democracy occurs when a police officer tortures someone while they are in their custody. It is the greatest irony that the nation is currently fighting valiantly to eradicate a crime like "Custodial Violence" yet Mahatma Gandhi was the foremost leader who adhered to the ideal of non-violence in achieving India's freedom. The state has a responsibility to defend society from attack. One has no choice but to be tortured by those who uphold the law and the rule of law. Custodial death is not in accordance with the procedure established by law, at the same time, it is the deprivation of the right to life. Custodial death is the outcome of the brutal action or negligence of the police. It results in an unnatural death. Such a dangerous issue that is threatening the very basic right to life remained unexplored, and no major research has been undertaken to examine the problem from a state-level perspective. Thus, there is depth and intensive literature on the topic. The literature helps to give a comprehensive picture of efforts taken by the judiciary as well as the state government to combat the custodial violence. It deeply analyses the constitutional protections of an Accused and it is concluded by saying numerous suggestions for combating the custodial violence crimes. Therefore, the present study is mainly focused on critical analysis of the adequacy of existing laws relating to prevention of custodial violence. The study also incorporates practical aspects of custodial violence based on the statistics given by the State Human Rights Commission of Tamil Nadu.

Landscape patterns in stand-replacing disturbances across the world’s forests

AbstractThe spatial imprint of forest disturbances, which can result from a variety of anthropogenic and natural causes, is important in shaping the form and function of the world’s forests. However, we lack a systematic assessment of how the forms of forest disturbances differ globally, which could help in sustainable forest policy and management initiatives to protect forest biomes. Here we produce a global-scale quantification of disturbance patch structures. Using indicators of magnitude, complexity and context, we found that the forms of stand-replacing disturbances can be classified into four broad patterns, whose spatial dominance varies across regions. Human activities were shown to introduce disturbance structures that are not naturally common, especially in the tropics. The consistency of these patterns across biomes outside intact forests suggests that a continuation of current dynamics may lead to a structural homogenization of the world’s forests, with potential consequences for forest ecology and functions. These results provide a greater understanding of the mechanisms governing forest dynamics and elucidating the causal agents of disturbances. This will be a key step towards building more reliable projections of future forest conditions, informing policymaking and ensuring the sustainability of forest management.

Road traffic and the death of wild nature

Road traffic and the death of wild nature

Positional asphyxia: Potpourri of cases

A legal medicine specialist will likely be able to observe a variety of situations in which positional asphyxia, a deadly condition resulting from the adoption of specific body positions that cause mechanical interference with pulmonary ventilation, can occur (work, car accidents, torture, kidnapping, etc.). In these circumstances the cause of death is typically difficult to determine because the patient typically presents with a distinct anatomo-pathologic appearance.Because of chest compression, positional asphyxia can occasionally be difficult to differentiate from asphyxia. The primary distinction is in how the incident happened: that is, if the specific posture that resulted in asphyxia was acquired voluntarily or was due to an external mechanical action that led to traumatic asphyxia.Three basic criteria are used to diagnose positional asphyxia: the body posture must impede normal gas exchange , moving to a different position must be impossible, and alternative cause of natural or violent death must be ruled out. The authors here present a series of five cases drawn from the professional experience to highlight the primary patho-physiologic and diagnostic causes of positional asphyxia.

Regret about environmental destruction: Examining the relative strengths of affective regret and cognitive regret in promoting pro-environmental behaviors

Regret is experienced when one imagines “what might have been”. Although a familiar emotion to many, it has seldom been examined in the context of environmental destruction. We conducted three studies to examine the affective (negative affect in response to destruction) and cognitive (counterfactual thoughts of how things could be different) experiences of regret, and their roles in promoting pro-environmental behavior. Study 1 (N = 235) was a cross-sectional study and it showed that participants reported higher cognitive regret than affective regret when reflecting upon human-caused environmental destruction. However, affective regret was the stronger predictor of pro-environmental behaviors. Study 2 (N = 257) was a between-subjects experiment where we manipulated information exposure by presenting information about the loss of mangroves due to human causes or natural causes or presenting neutral information on mangrove species. Participants showed higher levels of both cognitive and affective regret in response to mangrove destruction (vs. neutral mangrove information), particularly when it was attributed to human actions rather than forces of nature. Both types of regret were found to mediate the effects of condition (human-caused vs. control) on pro-environmental behaviors, but affective regret was the more consistent mediator. Study 3 (N = 393) was a between-subjects experiment which manipulated regret focus through a writing task to elicit affective, cognitive, or no regret. Results showed that pro-environmental behavioral tendencies were highest in the affective regret condition, followed by cognitive regret condition, and lowest in the control condition, although these differences were not statistically significant. In summary, this research found that although people tend to show stronger cognitive regret than affective regret about environmental destruction, it is affective regret that more strongly predicts pro-environmental behaviors. Our findings highlight the promising impact of the feeling of regret in motivating sustainable actions.

A hybrid machine learning-based cyber-threat mitigation in energy and flexibility scheduling of interconnected local energy networks considering a negawatt demand response portfolio

The interconnection of local energy networks (LENs) enables efficient exchange of energy and flexibility among them, fostering the integration of distributed energy resources and demand-side management strategies. Thus, the interconnected local energy systems (ILEN) structure is a viable approach to electrical distribution systems’ operation and management. However, implementing distributed energy management structures such as ILEN entails a great amount of information transactions. Therefore, these structures are more vulnerable to cyber threats. Thus, the newly developed efficient and secure power systems’ operation methods should take digitalization-related security risks into account. As a result, this paper is focused on the development of a secure operation method, equipped with a hybrid algorithm to mitigate cyber threats in the context of ILEN. In this regard, this research proposes a novel hybrid XGBoost-based cyber threat mitigation (HXGBTM) method to cope with the vulnerabilities of the physical and information layers of the cyber-infrastructure. The proposed cyber threat mitigation method is built upon the classification and regression capabilities of the XGBoost ensemble of decision trees to identify and mitigate anomalies in the electrical consumption data. Therefore, in the first step, the ILEN’s multi-objective energy and flexibility scheduling problem considering demand response portfolio i.e., MOEFSDRPILENis developed that encompasses a bi-level optimization problem, in which the operator of the ILEN optimizes energy and flexibility trading in the upper level. While in the lower level, each LEN operator minimizes scheduling costs along with maximizing the local flexibility as well as providing a demand response portfolio as a negawatt resource. Here, the flexibility index, which is later maximized using the second objective function, is considered as the proportion between "the available ramping capacity" and "required ramping capacity". In this paper, direct load control, and interruptible/curtailable demand response comprehensive models are implemented as candidate programs for the suggested portfolio. Furthermore, a hybrid cyber threat is modeled considering the communication line intrinsic vulnerability, as a result of natural causes, wear, and aging of the infrastructure etc., as well as false data injection (FDI) attacks that target each LEN’s electrical consumption database. Finally, the proposed HXGBTM is employed to mitigate the above-mentioned cyber-vulnerabilities and achieve near real-world conditions.

Epidemiological Evaluation of Suicidal Deaths due to Hanging: A Retrospective Medicolegal Study in Sylhet

Background: Suicidal hanging is the most common method of suicide in developing countries, especially among young people. During conventional autopsies, it is one of the significant causes of unnatural deaths in Bangladesh. This study was performed to determine the epidemiological evaluation of suicidal deaths due to suicidal hanging at the mortuary of the Forensic Medicine Department of Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College, Sylhet. Materials and methods: An autopsy record-based retrospective study carried out to ascertain the epidemiological evaluation of 340 cases of suicidal hanging deaths from January 2015 to December 2018 in the Department of Forensic Medicine, Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College, Sylhet. Results: Hanging was more common in the age ranges of 10-19 years (33.0%) and 20-29 years (29.1%), accounting for nearly two-thirds (62.1%) of all deaths. The incidence was higher in females (59.3%) than males (46.7%). Gowainghat (12.1%) and Kotwali (9.5%) had the highest incidences of victims. The most common autopsy findings were that the subcutaneous tissues underneath the ligature mark were found to be pale, white, hard and glistening in 94.2% of cases, cyanosis was found in 89.8% of cases, dribbling of saliva was seen in 66.3% of cases and subconjunctival petechial haemorrhage was observed in 46.0% of cases. Asphyxia (93.3%) was the most common cause of suicidal hanging deaths identified during autopsy. Conclusion: The majority of victims were female and young individuals were especially vulnerable to suicidal ideation, attempts and suicide by hanging. To reduce suicides, awareness programs, psychological counseling andsuicidal behavioral treatment are recommended. IAHS Medical Journal Vol 7(1), June 2024; 13-16

High incidence of complications following intraoral extractions and treatment of periapical infections in the management of domestic rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) dental disease (51 cases).

To describe the outcome of common medical therapies, intraoral dental procedures, extraoral surgical interventions, and resulting complications of treatment in client-owned rabbits diagnosed with dental disease. The medical records of 51 client-owned domestic rabbits presenting for veterinary care and management of dental disease from 2013 to 2023 at 2 veterinary teaching hospitals were reviewed. Of the patients managed with coronal reduction and occlusal adjustment, none developed significant complications. Of the patients that required intraoral dental extractions, 41% developed postprocedural complications, including incomplete tooth extraction. Following periapical infection and the formation of an odontogenic abscess for which surgical intervention was implemented, 25% of patients developed complications, including abscess recurrence and sepsis. Meloxicam was the most frequently prescribed analgesic medication for all procedures reviewed. Trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole combination oral suspension was the most frequently prescribed antibiotic following coronal reduction, occlusal adjustment, and dental extractions, and parenteral penicillin G procaine was the most frequently prescribed antibiotic following periapical infection-related interventions. Seven patients had documentation of natural death or humane euthanasia secondary to progressive dental disease. The risk of postprocedural complications during the management of dental disease must be considered and discussed given the high rate of potential complications. With the increasing popularity of rabbits as companion animals, dental disease is considered one of the most common reasons for veterinary care in this species. Rabbits undergoing intraoral dental procedures and extraoral surgical interventions for the treatment of acquired and progressive dental disease are at risk of developing adverse postprocedural sequelae that must be considered before attempting intervention. This report adds to the growing body of scientific literature related to the management of this challenging disease process.