Demographic profile of fatal sharp force injuries: Autopsy study at Tertiary Care Hospital.

Abstract

Objectives: To study the various aspects of fatal sharp force injuries in relation to the age groups, gender, affected body parts, manner of death, residential background & seasonal variation among the victims of unnatural deaths brought for medicolegal autopsy in a tertiary care hospital. Study Design: Cross sectional study. Setting: Postmortem Unit of DHQ Teaching Hospital, Sargodha. Period: 1^st January, 2017 to 31^st December, 2017. Material & Methods: The record of total 103 medicolegal autopsies were studied for the role of age, gender, body parts affected by external injury, area of jurisdiction of medicolegal cases with special consideration to mode, manner and cause of death. Results: Amongst the 103 medicolegal deaths, 98(95.15%) were male and rest 5(4.85%) were females. Those medicolegal cases belonged to different age group i.e. 1-10 years of age involved 3(2.91%), 11-21 years 11(10.68%), 21-30 years 37(35.92 %), 31-40 years 23(22.33%), 41-50 years 12(11.65%), 51-60years 14(13.59%) whereas age group of more than 60 years involved 3(2.92%) cases. Most of the victims 62(63.86%) were of rural back ground. Parts of body affected by visible injury included head 27(26.21%), neck 4(3.88%), thorax 13(12.62%), abdomen 2(11.65%), limbs 1(0.97%) while in 46(44.66%) cases multiple injuries were observed over different parts of body. Majority 65(63.10%) cases were homicidal while 8(7.76%) were suicidal, 19(18.44%) were accidental, 8 (7.76%) died in custody of police and 2(1.94%) cases remained undetermined. Conclusion: The sharp force injuries were observed in majority of males belonging to the rural areas among the age group of 21-40 years. The most commonly affected body part was head involving 27(26.21%) cases. The prevalence of these deaths was more in the months of June, July (summer) and then November.