Digital radiography and historical contextualisation of the 19th century modified human skeletal remains from the Worcester Royal Infirmary, England

Pediatric paleoradiology: Applications and best practice protocols for image acquisition and reporting

“…Such complete evaluations of individual skeletons have shown, for example, diffuse skeletal lesions consistent with syphilis (Mansilla & Pijoan, 1995); lytic lesions (Lewis, 1998); erosions suggestive of juvenile arthritis (Rothschild et al, 1997); evidence for osteogenesis imperfecta (Cope & Dupras, 2011); skeletal stigmata of child abuse (Blondiaux et al, 2002; Wheeler et al, 2013); diffuse cortical porosity and subperiosteal bone deposition felt to represent renal osteodystrophy (Mays & Turner‐Walker, 2008); lytic lesions suggestive of acute lymphocytic leukemia (Isidro et al, 2019); and metabolic deficiency (Wheeler et al, 2013). Such studies reveal the importance of imaging the entire skeleton, as minor lesions may not be visible macroscopically on bone surfaces (Western & Bekvalac, 2015).…”

“…Consistent use of imaging would permit improved data comparison across studies and facilitate avoidance of the selection bias that can result from the use of imaging only when a macroscopic finding has posed interpretive challenges. Such selective application of imaging overlooks pathologies that may be detected only by paleoradiology, including scurvy (Crandall & Klaus, 2014), malignancy (Ragsdale et al, 2018), and other lesions imperceptible to standard examination (Western & Bekvalac, 2015).…”

An amputated leg in 18th–19th centuries central Spain

“…The term comes from the Latin amputare , which means “to cut” or “to prune.” General and thoracic surgeries became possible with the discovery of anaesthesia in 1846 and the development of antiseptic surgery techniques (Kirkup, 2007; Weiss, 2000). Prior to this, the most important surgical interventions were related to trepanations on the cranial calotte (Campillo, 2007), the removal of tumour masses and limb amputation (Western & Bekvalac, 2015).…”

Autoptic practices in 16th–18th century Florence: Skeletal evidences from the Medici family

“…Significant overlap is possible between anatomical dissection and autopsy in osteoarchaeological remains, but a method for differentiating these two post-mortem investigative procedures has been recently proposed (Dittmar and Mitchell, 2015). Osteoarchaeological evidences of post-mortem examination from Europe have been reported, but go back mainly to the 18-19 th centuries (Henderson et al, 1996;Chapman, 1997;Signoli et al, 1997;Hillson et al, 1998;Brickley et al, 1999;Brickley et al, 2001;Anderson, 2002;Hull et al, 2003;Boston et al, 2005;Miles et al, 2008;Boston et al, 2009;Mitchell et al, 2011;Chamberlain, 2012;Mitchell, 2012;Bugaj et al, 2013;Charlier et al, 2013;Western and Bakvalac 2015). The most ancient specimens with evidences of craniotomies come from France and are date back to the 13 th (Charlier et al, 2013) and 15 th century (Valentin and D'Errico, 1995); in the first case the procedure was aimed at obtaining an anatomical preparation, whereas in the second case it has not been possible to determine if the craniotomies should be attributed to embalming, to autopsy or to both procedures.…”