Profile of Death Due to Thermal Burns: A Retrospective Study

Abstract

Fire is one of the important element of life, it is both useful (in cooking, producing warmth in winter,in cremation etc.) as well as harmful (by producing thermal burn injuries, blast injuries, forest fire, cropburning, volcanic eruption etc.) to the mankind. Burn injury is now becoming the major cause of deathamong unnatural deaths in various regions of the country and world. Majority of the burn cases occurathome due to smoking, defective electrical wiring, defective kerosene stove bursts, attempted suicides byself-immolation, homicidal burns of young women by husband or in-laws (dowry deaths). The present studywas based on retrospective analysis of post mortem cases of thermal burns during the period from January2018 to December 2018 in the Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, Bundelkhand MedicalCollege, Sagar (M.P). During this period total 349 autopsies were conducted, out of which majorities ofdeath, 116 cases were due to burn. Majority of the victims were married hindu females belonging to agegroup of 21-30 years. Of these cases carbon soot particles in trachea were present in 7% of cases andkerosene smell was present in 21% cases. Most of deaths were accidental account for 78.44% cases. Policeinquest was conducted in 76% of the cases and rest of the cases were magistrate inquest. In 52(44.82%)cases, 60-80% of Total Body Surface Area (TSBA) was burnt of all body parts upper extremities werecommonly involved in about 96.55% cases. Accidental burn injuries are preventable and can be reduced bybringing about regulations to develop safer cooking appliances, promoting less inflammable fabrics to beworn at home and educating the community especially women.