An Audit of Medicolegal Autopsies at A Tertiary Care Hospital of Sindh, Pakistan

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate and audit the frequency of medicolegal autopsies to learn the current trends of unnatural and natural deaths in the society. Methods: It was a cross sectional study conducted at department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology LUMHS Jamhoro, and Medico-legal section of Liaquat University Hospital from March 2016 to February 2017. Total 91 cases were sorted out for the present audit report during the study period. Records of the post mortem reports. police papers and hospital emergency notes were noted in a pre-structured proforma. Cause and mode of death of victims was noted for the natural or unnatural deaths from the autopsy findings. The data was typed on Excel sheet for analysis. Descriptive statistics was used for the data analysis. Frequency and "Qwere computed for the specified variables such as age, and cause of deaths for data at 95% Cl ( P <0.05 ) Results: Male and female comprised 57 (62.6%) and 34 (37.4%) respectively. Male to female ratio was 1.67:1 for total sample. Most common age category in male was 30- 39.9 years and 40- 49.9 in female. Suicidal, homicidal and accidental cases comprised 30 (32.9" o ), 29 3 1 .8%) and 16 (17.5%) respectively ofboth male and female subjects. The present study shows most common cause of death was suicidal in both male and female subjects. Conclusion: Suicidal deaths were more than accidental and homicidal deaths followed by undetermined deaths and natural deaths. Death among male exceeded than the female.