Study on Unnatural Death Pattern in Mardan, Pakistan.

Abstract

Introduction: Medico-legal autopsy is a scientific examination of a dead body which is performed to determine the cause, mode, time since death, manner of death and in some cases the identification of the deceased where unknown; thus helping the law enforcement agencies and the society in providing justice to everybody even after death.
Objective: To determine the spectrum of unnatural deaths during a study period of one year in Mardan, so that information may subsequently be used to develop pub-lic health and law enforcement work and statistics.
Methodology: This retrospective study was conducted Mardan Medical Complex Hospital, an affiliated teaching hospital of Bacha Khan Medical College, Mardan from 1st January, 2017 to 31st December, 2017. Data of unnatural deaths (n=119) obtained from mortuary. The demographic variables age and gender, manner of death, weapon used and urban-rural variation in medico-legal deaths were noted. Data presented as numbers and percentages.
Results: A total of 119 medico-legal autopsies were conducted during one year study period. Males were 97 (81.51%) and females 22 (18.48%). Accidental deaths significantly predominated 58 (48.73%) over homicidal 36 (30.25%) and suicidal 22 (18.48%) manners of death. Most of the deaths resulted from road traffic acci-dental deaths followed by firearms, blunt and sharp weapons. Most of the cases were urban inhabitants 72(60.50%) followed by those belonging to rural areas 47(39.49%).
Conclusion: Majority of victims of unnatural deaths died from road traffic accidents followed by firearm deaths, and definitely deaths reported from urban areas was more compared to the rural areas.
Keywords: Medico-legal autopsy, Unnatural death, Homicide, Suicide, Accident