Audit of medico legal death in metropolitan city of Warri, Nigeria.

Abstract

Aim: To describe the various medico legal autopsy cases with respect to sex, age, cause and manner of death.
 Material and Methods: This is a descriptive retrospective study of 972 medico-legal autopsy cases studied in Warri Metropolis from 1st Jan. 2003 to 31th December 2016. The relevant information was extracted and subsequently analyzed statistically using SPSS version 22.
 Results: A total of 972 cases of medico legal autopsies of 843 males against 129 females were studied. Their ages of victims ranged from 0.4 years to 85 years, with a mean of 34.45 years and a peak age group in their 3rd decade. Homicidal, accidental, sudden natural, suicidal, and indeterminate cases accounted for 55.7% (541), 24.7% (240), 17.3% (168), 1.4% (14) and 0.9% (9) of the cases respectively. Firearm injuries, sharp weapon and blunt injuries, accounting for 374 (69.1%), 122(22.6%) and 37(6.8%) of homicide cases. Road traffic accident, drowning, burns injury and electrocution accounted for 119(49.6%), 34(14.2%), 26(10.8%) and 19(7.9%) of accidental cases respectively. Cardiovascular, Central nervous system-related and infectious diseases are responsible for 79(47.0%), 21(12.5%) and 15(8.9%) of sudden natural deaths observed in this study. Hanging and corrossive chemical ingestion accounted for 10(71.4%) and 4(28.6%) respectively of the suicide cases, and together representing a MFR of 3.7:1.
 Conclusion: Our study showed that firearm injuries, road traffic accident and sharp weapons injuries are the leading cause of unnatural death while cardiovascular diseases account for most cases of sudden natural deaths