Asphyxial deaths: a retrospective study and review of the literature.
An increasing death rate as a result of violence constitutes a large group in medicolegal autopsies. Specially, deaths due to asphyxia are one of the most important causes in violence deaths. During the 21-year period from January 1984 to October 2004, there were 134 asphyxial deaths autopsied by the Department of Forensic Medicine, Trakya University, Edirne, Turkey. Asphyxial deaths comprise 15.7% of all forensic autopsies; 20.8% of the cases are aged between 30 and 39 years, and the average age was 41.9 years. Males constitute 79.8% of all the cases. The most frequent method of asphyxiation death is hanging (56 cases, 41.8%), followed by drowning (30.5%) and carbon monoxide poisoning (8.2%). More violent methods, such as ligature or manual strangulations, constitute 2.9% and 2.3% of all asphyxial deaths, respectively. Although it was varying according to the methods of asphyxiation, suicide was found to be the manner of death in the majority of the cases.
Azmak
Derya
D
Department of Forensic Medicine, Trakya University, Medical Faculty, Edirne, Turkey.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000402:Airway Obstruction / Q000401:mortality; D001237:Asphyxia / Q000401:mortality*; D002249:Carbon Monoxide Poisoning / Q000401:mortality; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004332:Drowning / Q000401:mortality; D005260:Female; D005554:Forensic Medicine; D006708:Homicide / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019838:Neck Injuries / Q000401:mortality; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D017678:Sex Distribution; D013405:Suicide / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014421:Turkey / Q000453:epidemiology