Causes of sudden death as seen at autopsy in Mulago

ABSTRACT

The autopsy study was carried out in the mortuaries found at Mulago to studt lesions in sudden death in respect to age; sex; tribe and high light any other disorders identified in the cases. There were 51 cases on which autopsy was carried on; 26 from the hospital mortuary and 25 from forensic mortuary. These cases fufilled the definition of sudden death using the WHO definition 1971. 26 cases were male (51) and 2 female (49) The median age was 35 years and the average age was 40.73 years. The highest number of cases came from Ganda tribe with 28; (54.9) and the lowest cases were from Samia; Nyoro; Lugbara; and Rwanda. Infection was the commonest cause of sudden death accounting for 12 cases followed by asphyxia 9 and then pulmonary embolism 5 cases. In general respiratory causes of death contributed the highest number of death with 21 out of 51 (41.2). In 12 months 25 cases of sudden deaths were seen in Mulago Hospital this represented (6.25) of the 400 autopsies done in 1997. The study showed that sudden death is quite common in Mulago with an almost equal male to female ratio and was found to be highest in the young active age group but no age was exempted. The study also demonstrated that some of the causes of sudden death are preventable and if identified early this can go along way to limit the incidences of sudden death. There were also a number of limitations. Because of Religious and cultural reasons; autopsy was not done on all people who died suddenly. Since in most cases bodies had to be carried from long distances to the mortuary were postmortem could be performed; distance to Mulago also had a role to play. Lack of some technical facilities limited the scope of findings in sudden death i.e. toxicological and biochemical examinations were not done yet this could have added on more information