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Investigations of 25 human cadavers, using various anatomical techniques, led to the development of a safe and simple method of subclavian venipuncture. This method was tested with special regard to possible complications. The authors describe the guidelines for the choice of the point where the skin has to be penetrated as well as of the point towards which the needle has to be directed. While the latter is situated a little beyond the spinous process of the seventh cervical vertebra, the other is determined as follows: the distance between the acromion and the sternoclavicular joint is divided into three parts, and the junction between the medial and central third of this distance is marked on the skin. Starting from this point a vertical is dropped towards the line between the acromion and the sternal angle. The point of intersection between this line and the vertical is where the cannula penetrates the skin. After a distance of between 2.5 and 4.5 cm the top of the needle reaches the subclavian vein. Even if the vessel is pierced through and through, no complication such as pneumothorax, laceration of arteries, lesions of the adjacent nerves, etc., can occur. Using this method the authors performed catheterization of the subclavian vein in 200 patients, and there were no complications at all.

A well-demarcated U or V-shaped gas density superimposed over the trachea on posteroanterior chest radiographs is due to air in the suprasternal fossa. This is the depression on the skin surface of the neck between the sternal heads of the sternocleidomastoid muscles. The fossa is frequently visualized radiographically in cachectic or very thin people, and in patients with prior laryngectomies. It is also seen in patients with chronic obstructive lung disease and in patients in acute respiratory distress. Because of its typical location and configuration, it should not be confused with an air-fluid level in the esophagus or an upper airway diverticulum.

For differentiating a male from a female sternum, a metrical study of 400 adult North Indian sterna (312 males and 88 females) obtained from medicolegal postmortems was made. If the combined length of the manubrium and mesosternum was more than 140 mm. the sternum was male, and if less than 131 mm. it was female. No opinion could be given if the length was between 131 and 140 mm. By this measurement 72.12% male and 62.50% female sterna could be sexed with 100% accuracy. The length of the mesosternum alone could also determine the sex correctly in 50.32% male and 29.55% female specimens. The length of the manubrium, manubrium-corpus index, width of the first or third sterebra or their index, were not found to be useful in sexing a given sternum. By using multivariate analysis the probability of correctly identifying the sex of a sternum was over 85%.

The method of estimating gestational age from the height of the fundus uteri during pregnancy has been investigated. Such wide variations occur in the length of the maternal abdomen and umbilical position and in the level of the uterine fundus at each gestational age that the method is not reliable. Assessment of uterine size by pelvic examination in the first trimester of pregnancy correlates more closely with gestational age than assessments made by abdominal palpation of the uterus at a later time.