A Study on the Cause of Death Due to Burn Cases and Histopathological Changes in North Indian Setting-A Cross Sectional Study

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Background: Fatal burns and related injuries are major cause of death and disability. There are certain pathological changes such as lungs shows necrotizing pneumonia, congestion of alveolar walls, capillary proliferation, intra alveolar oedema, giant epithelial cells Objective: To study on the cause of death due to burn cases and histopathological changes in north Indian setting. Method: This was a cross-sectional study. All autopsies with history of burn injury were studied to find out the significant histopathological change in lung. Cases was thoroughly studied using specially designed proforma that included demographic profile of deceased, history from relatives, police & hospital records, autopsy findings. Results: The most common cause of death due to burn injury was found to be Sepsis (48.2%) and neurogenic shock (29.5%). On histopathological examination, Congestion in trachea was present in majority 434 (78.9%) cases while Tracheal soot particles were present in only 40 (7.3%) cases. Specimens of 375 cases were available for histopathology out of which 52 (13.9%) specimens were autolyzed. Changes suggestive of Pneumonia (50.1%), Congestion (83.7%), alveolar and interstitial haemorrhage (63.2%) were present in majority of the cases while changes suggestive of alveolar interstitial edema (64.3%), alveolar wall disruption (66.1%), inflammatory cells (55.5%), hyaline membrane (79.7%) and Fibrin strands (79.7) were absent in majority of cases. Capillary dilatation was present in 39.2%. Conclusion: In the present study, an important observation in burn deaths is the Sepsis and Neurogenic shock. Congestion in trachea was most common on histopathological change.