Results of Medicolegal Autopsies Conducted At A Tertiary Care Hospital, Sukkur, Pakistan

Abstract

Objective: To describe the results of medicolegal autopsies conducted at mortuary of Ghulam Muhammad Mahar Medical College, Sukkur, Pakistan during a specific period.

Methods: Present study is a retrospective descriptive analysis of medicolegal autopsies conducted in the mortuary from a period of January 2018 to December 2020 after acquiring ethical approval from the hospital. A total of 297 medicolegal autopsies were performed during this specific period. Their significant findings such as gender, age, caste, area of residence, cause & manner of death were collected from Post-mortem registers/records, Inquest papers and Post- mortem reports and entered on SPSS version 22 for analysis. Frequency and percentages were calculated for all categorical variables.

Results: It was observed that out of 297 medicolegal deaths, maximum number of autopsies conducted were in third decade of life (n=133 cases, 44.78%) followed by 66 (22.22%) in 2^nd decade of life. Male cases predominated over female cases, which were (n=193, 65%). Majority of the cases were resident of local areas of Sukkur. Mughals were in majority with 79 cases (26.59%) followed by Sheikhs with 62 cases (20.87%), Baloch 44 (14.81%). Maximum number of deaths were due to road traffic accidents (n=103, 34.68%) followed by firearm injuries (n=73, 24.57 %) and asphyxial deaths (n=11, 3.70%). Accidental was the most common manner of death (n=192, 64.64%) followed by homicidal (n=40, 13.46%).

Conclusion: It is observed that majority of cases were in 3rd decade of life and preponderance of male sex is seen over female sex , could be due to more exposure of males to outer world. Most common cause of death found was road traffic accidents probably due to increased frequency of transportation and decreased regulation of traffic control.