title: Bathtub drowning: An 11-year retrospective study in the state of Maryland.
abstract: A bathtub drowning is one of the leading causes of death in a bathtub. The purpose of this study was to evaluate how reliable the drowning-related signs could be for identifying a bathtub drowning in the cases of death in the bathtub. Performing a retrospective review of 92 deaths in the bathtub in Maryland, 71.7 percent were the presence of bathtub drowning and 28.3 percent were the absence of bathtub drowning. Three leading contributory causes of death were cardiovascular disease, drug/alcohol-related death, and seizure disorder in both groups. There was a statistically significant difference between the groups in relation to a history of recovery from the water (95.5% and 38.4%, p<0.001), foam in the air way (33.3% and 15.4%, p<0.05), watery fluid in the sphenoid sinuses (81.8% and 11.5%, p<0.05), hyperinflated lungs (36.4% and 3.8%, p<0.01), and watery fluid in the stomach contents (40.9% and 3.8%, p<0.01). More than triple overlapped drowning-related signs could be beneficial for the diagnosis of a bathtub drowning. A comprehensive investigation incorporating a thorough scene investigation, gathering of the victim's medical and psychosocial history, and a meticulous full autopsy is necessary to elucidate both the cause and manner of death in these cases of death in the bathtub.
authors.affiliation: Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, State of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, USA; Department of Legal Medicine, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan. Electronic address: takahisa.okuda@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Takahisa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Okuda
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Staten Island University Hospital, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Zhuo
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, State of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Sheldon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lapan
authors.affiliation: Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, State of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: David R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Fowler
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001494:Baths; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D004332:Drowning / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality*; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D049429:Forensic Pathology; D005766:Gastrointestinal Contents / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D008168:Lung / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008396:Maryland / Q000453:epidemiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013101:Sphenoid Sinus / Q000473:pathology; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Bathtub; Drowning; Forensic pathology; Hot bath; Sudden death; Unconsciousness