Evaluation of childhood autopsies in Sivas, Turkey

Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine the features and changes in the medicolegal childhood deaths that occurred in Sivas, Turkey; and to contribute in the establishment of a database on childhood deaths. The authors evaluated the deaths of children aged to 0 to 18 years, whose autopsies were performed in Sivas Cumhuriyet University between 2006 and 2009. The childhood deaths were reviewed with respect to sex, age, event region, event date, event type, creme scene, cause of death. The evaluation of 90 cases was made by use of Chi-square test in SPSS (Ver: 10.0). During four years, of 547 forensic death cases that underwent autopsy, 90 were aged between 0 to 18 years. 57 (63.3%) of the cases were male. The main cause of death was traffic accident in 24 (26.7%) cases. In order to avoid children deaths, the preventive and curative health services should be strengthened, and the training programs must be provided for parents. To avoid child abuse, it should be a concern of the government bodies and civil society. As a result, the child protection programme is needed in our regions and new regulations should be enacted to protect children against accidents, injuries, hazards and abuse. Key words: Childhood deaths, accident, abuse, autopsy, forensic medicine.