ABSTRACT
Objective: The main objective of Medico-legal autopsy is to find out the cause of death but it also helps in finding the manner of death. From this we also find out the criminal behavior of the society and usage of different kinds of weapons related with the cause of death and particularly the types of fire-arm weapons which is more in concern with the present study. This study was especially conducted to find out the predominance of rifled fire-arms weapons amongst all fire-arm deaths
Study Design: Observational / descriptive study
Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted at the Department of Forensic medicine and Toxicology K.E.M.U. Lahore during the period of 2006-2008
Materials and Methods: This study includes 2979 medico-legal autopsies. The information was gathered from post-mortem reports, police documents and hospital records. Not only the kind of weapon was studied but all other parameters were taken into consideration like, cause and manner of death, sex, age, season and areas of injuries on the body
Results: The analysis quite distinctly highlighted that amongst 2979 deaths 1285 were because of fire-arms weapons [43.13%]. Out of these 1192 [92%] deaths were by rifled weapons, whereas 103 [8%] were by smooth bored fire-arm weapons. Total number of male deaths by fire-arms was 1066 [82.95%], whereas females were 219 [17.05%]. All homicidal cases were 788, 46 suicidal, 97 accidental and in 354 the manner remained un-determined. The manner amongst males was, 652 homicidal, 42 suicidal, 82 accidental and in 290 it was un-determined. And in females 136 were homicidal, 4 were suicidal, 15 accidental and in 64 the manner remained un-determined. The ratio of homicidal to suicidal was 17.1:1 and homicidal to accidental ratio was 8.1:1. In 92% cases the rifled fore-arms weapons was used and in 8% it was smooth bored. The rifled fire-arms injuries had multiple entry wounds in 52.9% of deaths and there was single entry wound in 47% deaths. While there was single entry wound in 66% deaths in smooth bored weapons and in 34% of cases multiple wounds were observed. The range of fire in [56.8%] homicidal deaths was distant, whereas in 30.4% it was close range. Close contact fire was seen in 1.4% of suicidal deaths. 16% cases showed blackening, 10.58% cases had tattooing and in 2.25% cases there was burning
Conclusion: The fire-arms weapon is the most predominant mean of un-natural deaths. Amongst them the usage of rifled weapons is more than the smooth bored. So this needs formulation of effective law for control of these weapons
ABSTRACT
Objective: This study was carried out to find the manner and gender variation in various age groups of asphyxial deaths in Lahore
Study Design: Observational study
Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted at the Department of Forensic Medicine King Edward Medical University, Lahore, during January 2006 to December 2008
Materials and Methods: A total of 2979 autopsies had been carried out. After detailed scrutiny 220 cases of asphyxial deaths were selected for this study. The post-mortem reports, police papers and hospital notes were studied. The parameters selected in those asphyxial deaths were age, sex, means of constriction, level of application of force and fracture of hyoid bone
Results: Amongst this total number of autopsies in 220 cases, the cause of death was asphyxia [7.39%]. Hanging surpassed amongst all asphyxial deaths 104 which was 47.27%, ligature strangulation was next in number 64[29.09%] and then the throttling 52[23.64%]. Out of these 104 cases of hanging72 were males and males dominated as per M/F ratio shown as 2.25:1.0. The 3rddecade age group i.e.; 21-30 years had higher incidence of males than females. The homicidal manner was126 [57.27%], suicidal 68[30.91%] and in un-determined it was 26[11.82%]
Conclusion: Hanging remains the commonest method of suicide in males especially in age group of 21-30.Strangulation with ligature and manual throttling are the other methods used in homicidal deaths. The post-mortem findings showed damage to the structures above the thyroid cartilage which favors death due to hanging and throttling. And the trauma to the tissues below thyroid cartilage is consistent with ligature strangulation. The fracture of Hyoid bone is commonly seen in ligature strangulation