title: Evaluation of the mortality due to external causes.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  External causes have become an important public health problem due to their high mortality, morbidity, costs, the loss of potential years of life and the impact for individuals, their families and society. The aim of this study was to analyze the characteristics of fatal victims of trauma in a microregion from São Paulo State.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a retrospective, transverse, exploratory and descriptive study. The Coroner's Office (IML) of Catanduva - SP - provided 511 medical records of the victims of external causes from 2008-2011. It was performed a survey and a review of those records and the data retrieved regarded gender, age, intentionality and mechanism of external cause.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mortality predominance was on male individuals (77.9% of the cases - p<0.001). Deaths classified as non intentional represented 66.9%, where as the intentional ones represented 33.1% (p<0.0001). Accidents caused by land transports were responsible for 45.6% of cases, being the main cause for the deaths analyzed. On second place there were suicides (16%), followed by the homicides (13.9%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results of the present study were different from the profiles found in some other Brazilian studies, approaching to the reality of the developed countries, considering non-intentionality as preponderant and the main causes were accidents by land transports, suicides and homicides, respectively. Improvements should be done to assure the quality of information in the documentation of Forensic Physicians, since the lack of information in the Death Certificate was one of the difficulties found by the authors.
authors.affiliation: Faculdades Integradas Padre Albino, Catanduva, SP, Brasil. novo02@uol.com.br
authors.forename: Ricardo Alessandro Teixeira
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Gonsaga
authors.forename: Caroline Fernandes
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Rimoli
authors.forename: Eduardo Araújo
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Pires
authors.forename: Fernando Scaramucci
authors.initials: FS
authors.lastname: Zogheib
authors.forename: Marcos Vinicius Tadao
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Fujino
authors.forename: Milena Bolini
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Cunha
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002423:Cause of Death; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000401:mortality*; D055815:Young Adult