Partly as a result of major recent advances in neurobiology
and molecular sciences, but also as a consequence
of improving methods in clinical neurosciences,
general and forensic pathology, forensic
neuropathology has become a highly specialized
field of modern medicine, which deals with disorders
of the nervous system under non-natural, traumatic,
exogenous or criminal conditions. Although
forensic neuropathology has a long tradition, leading
from C.B. Courville (1964) via Leestma (1988),
and Unterharnscheidt (1992−94) to Manfred Oehmichen,
and is of eminent importance within the
field of forensic sciences, this particular and complicated
subject has received only little attention
within the scientific community. With greater and
more precise understanding of the pathological,
physical, biochemical, and molecular genetic processes
involved in disorders of the nervous system
and their relations with causes of death under natural
and non-natural circumstances, the prospects
of new forms of investigation into fatal processes
are becoming more practicable. Based on lifelong
experience in the field of general forensic medicine
and, in particular, forensic pathology and neuropathology,
Forensic Neuropathology and Associated
Neurology, written by Manfred Oehmichen, Roland
N. Auer, and Hans Günter König presents a timely
overview of the state-of-the-art of examination and
clarification of diseases of the nervous system under
general and forensic circumstances. Like general
pathology and neuropathology, its forensic part
serves not only to clarify the causes of death due
to nervous system disorders, but it is an important
method for quality control excluding natural causes
of death. Thus, forensic neuropathology, based on
recent results, guidelines and standards of modern
pathology and neurosciences, has become an integral
part of forensic medicine and practice.