[Combined trauma and sepsis in forensic medical practice]

The relationship between combined injury and sepsis is an important problem of forensic medicine. A total of 227 cases with combined injuries have been investigated postmortem at Bureau of Forensic Medical Expert Evaluations of Moscow in 1997. Sepsis developed in 9.7% cases. The studies revealed a direct cause-and-effect relationship between mechanical injuries and development of sepsis in the overwhelming majority of cases. Sepsis may develop at any period of the traumatic disease, except the first one, and the infection is prone to generalization in the remote postoperative period.