Study of Violent Asphyxial Deaths: a 10 - Year Retrospective Study

Abstract

An analysis of cases of violent asphyxial deaths for 10 years at Dr Shankarrao Chavan Government Medical College, Nanded, Maharashtra State, India is presented. Total 554 violent asphyxial deaths were grouped for study purpose, which comprises 5.9% of all medico-legal autopsies performed during January 2001 to December 2010. Males constitute 63.2% of all the cases with male:female ratio 1.71:1. The study showed the highest deaths in the age group of 21–30 years (31.9%). Drowning (49.1%) and hanging (46.6%) constitute major cause of death among violent asphyxial deaths followed by ligature strangulation (2.5%), Throttling (0.5%), Smothering (0.5%), Traumatic asphyxia (0.5%) and choking (0.2%). The distribution of manner of death showed commonest method of asphyxiation was suicide (57.4%), followed by accidental (30.68%) and homicidal (5.05%).