Epidemiological Profile of Medico-Legal Autopsy Cases Reported at a Tertiary Care Center

Abstract

Aim: The objective of medical legal post-mortem examination is to establish the identity of a body when not knownto ascertain the time since death and the cause of death; and whether that the death was natural or unnatural, andif unnatural whether it was homicidal, suicidal, or accidentally.Material and Methods: The Present study is conducted in 200 corpses reporting for postmortem analysis overa period of one year above 18 years of age presenting to the Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology.The corpses are randomly selected and are assessed for the statistics regarding the epidemiology based on theautopsies performed. The Autopsy reports are anonymized with the patient code number, and sex, time of death,manner of death, pattern of death and cause of death data is documented.Results: Male predominance was observed among the sudden death cases. Sudden death is more common amongthe cases brought from urban residential areas, with 136 out of 200 cases (68%). Among the causes of sudden death,the most commonly involved organ system was the cardiovascular system (46%), followed by the gastrointestinalsystem (20%), respiratory system (18%), central nervous system (14%) and genitourinary system (2%).Conclusion: Our strongest conclusion is that male/female differences in medicolegal autopsies are highlydependent on historical time and geographic location. Increased frequency of sudden deaths among urban,married and adult male populations might be due to sedentary lifestyles in urban areas and increased stress amongmarried individuals due to workload and family responsibilities, indicating a physical and mental disequilibriumin modern times resulting in this type of unexpected deaths.