Study of fatal burn cases in medico- legal autopsies.

ABSTRACT

The burn autopsies form the major bulk of autopsies carried out at most of the hospitals in India. A medico–legal study of fatal burn cases was carried out at Nanded (India) during the period of 3 years. These constituted 18.2% of the total medico–legal autopsies carried out during the same period. The majority of burn deaths were observed in the age group of 11 – 40 yrs (83.11%), with peak incidence in 21 – 30 yrs (39.5%) of age group. Female preponderance was seen in all age groups with male to female ratio 12.5. Most of the cases were from rural area (76.3%). In 189 cases (41.4%), total body surface area involved was more than 80%. Majority of the subjects died as a result of flame burns (92.3%), followed by electric burns (5.3%) & scald (2.4%). In 406 cases (89%), Kerosene oil was involved leading to fatal burns. Accidental burns were most common (70.8%), followed by suicidal (18.2%) and homicidal burns (10.9%). The majority of deaths due to burns were observed within 1 week (66.2%).