The Intervened Heart: Cardiac Hardware in the Forensic Suite

Abstract

Cardiovascular interventions—in the form of bypass grafts, stents, prosthetic valves, and ventricular assist devices—are increasingly common for the typical citizen of the industrialized world. While these certainly contribute to longevity and improved quality of life, they can also be a source of morbidity and mortality. In most cases, a handful of predictable pathogenic pathways underlie the eventual degeneration or failure of the various interventions, and may be implicated as a cause of death. Much less frequently, an untoward and unexpected complication can be the culprit. The objectives of this manuscript are to describe the more common cardiac interventions (both mechanical and surgical), highlight the typical failure modes, and present approaches to evaluate devices and grafts when encountered in the forensic autopsy suite.