title: Asphyxial deaths: a retrospective study and review of the literature.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Forensic Medicine, Trakya University, Medical Faculty, Edirne, Turkey.
authors.forename: Derya
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Azmak
mesh_terms: 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