Suicidal Cut Throat Injuries: Management Modalities

Abstract

Suicide is defined as the act of taking one’s life. This self destructive act constitutes an individual intentionally or ambivalently taking his or her own life. Suicidal behavior is any deliberate action with potentially life-threatening consequences, such as taking a drug overdose or deliberately crashing a car. Oftentimes suicide is committed by individuals suffering from a mental illness; therefore, it can be used as an index of mental ill health in a community. Several forms of suicidal behavior exists which fall within the self destructive spectrum. These include; Suicide attempt: This involves a serious act, such as inflicting self injury and some other person accidentally intervening. Without the accidental discovery, death of the individual would occur. Suicide gesture: This is when an individual undertakes an unusual but not fatal behavior as a cry for help or to get attention. Suicide gamble: This is inflicting self injury knowing that family members or other persons will be home in time to discover and save them. Suicide equivalent: In this situation an individual does not attempt suicide. Instead, he or she uses behavior to get some of the reactions their suicide would have caused. For example, an adolescent boy runs away from home. He wants to see how his parents respond to his absence from home. He wants to know if they care, if they are sorry for the way that they have been treating him. This can be seen as an indirect cry for help. There are various ways of executing suicide ranging from ingestion of fatal drug dosages to slitting one’s wrists, hanging by the neck to cutting of the throat. Cut throat injuries may be homicidal or suicidal and they are potentially life threatening injuries because of the many vital structures in the neck which may be affected leading to sever hemorrhage, air embolism or respiratory obstruction and death. Therefore, prompt and adequate intervention is required following a cut throat injury from an attempted suicide to save a patient. This chapter aims to discuss the management modalities available for cut throat injuries with suicide as the motivating factor.