[Analysis of 574 cases of high-fall death].
OBJECTIVE
To establish a database of high-fall death cases for future forensic study and practice, based on the scene investigation, injury characteristics and other informations.


METHODS
Five hundred and four cases of high-fall death from 5 provinces and cities were included in the study. Data including personal information of the deceased, scene investigation, autopsy findings, history of mental illness and the results of toxicology were collected and analyzed.


RESULTS
The male accidental death rate was significantly higher than that of female. No case of suicide was found in the 0-10 age group, while the suicide rate was apparently higher in the 60 years or over age group than that of accident. Most of the accident cases occurred at workplace, with head landing first and foot or lower-extremity landing first observed from height below 10 m and between 10-25 m, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
The majority of cases have obvious conclusions. A substantial set of the cases, however, is still difficult to determine the mechanism of injury and the manner of death. So further study should be performed.
Department of Forensic Medicine, Medical College, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710061, China. m.s.wei@stu.xjtu.edu.cn
Shi-Wei
SW
Mao
Xi-Jie
XJ
Liu
Chang-Pei
CP
Su
Min
M
Zhang
Zhi-Qiang
ZQ
Mu
Xiao-Long
XL
Xu
Zhen-Yuan
ZY
Wang
D000058:Accidental Falls; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002423:Cause of Death; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D049429:Forensic Pathology; D006708:Homicide / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D017678:Sex Distribution; D013405:Suicide / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D055815:Young Adult