The right ventricle has been considered for a long time as a mere passive chamber without relevant function. This misconception has led to the consequence that scientists concentrated their attention on the study of the left ventricle and that pathology and physiopathology of the right one have been relatively neglected. This is particularly evident in the medicolegal literature, in which specific studies miss, though a role of the right ventricle in the determination of death has been proposed in different causes of death. The leading thread of this work was the investigation of the pathology of the right ventricle in a series of different causes of death typically observed in forensic pathology, in which an acute stress of the right ventricular myocardium could be assumed. The investigated groups were: fatal pulmonary embolism, pulmonary fat embolism, carbon monoxide intoxications, ethanol intoxications and traumatic brain injuries. Besides conventional histology, we performed immunohistochemical investigations with the antibodies against fibronectin and the terminal complement complex C5b-9 on human cardiac autopsy samples from both ventricles. In the investigated groups fresh ischemic damage prevalently localized at the right ventricle was detected. Data from the literature suggest that acute persistent pulmonary hypertension can be the main factor determining right ventricular damage and failure in these groups.