A Socio-Demographic Profile of Fatal Burn Deaths in Jaipur City, India

Deaths due to burn are some of the most challenging fatalities, both from the investigative and the autopsy aspect. The aim of this study was to record and evaluate the causes and the magnitude of the fatal burn injuries prospectively from 1st July 2012 to 30th June 2013. During this period, a total of 3572 cases were autopsied, of which 425 (11.9%) cases of burn received in the mortuary of SMS Hospital, Jaipur. The majority of deaths (82.3%) occurred between 11 and 40 years of age group with a preponderance of females (60.7%). The Flame burns were seen in 87.7% of the victims, followed by Electrical burns(7.7%). The maximum number of the burn victims 252(67.5%) died due to flame burns which were caused by kerosene oil. The majority of burn incidents were accidental (78%) in nature followed by suicidal (19%) deaths. The percentages of burns (TBSA) over 40% were observed in most of the cases (90.6%). According to the size 38.8% patients had 61–80% of body surface burns and 27.3% had more than 80% burns. The majority of deaths occurred within a week (53.4%) and most of the victims died from septicaemic shock (55.3%) followed by hypovolumic shock (31.5%).