Newer Trends in Hanging Death

A total of 105 cases of deaths due to hanging were studied in a span of 5 years time. This present study throws some light on the emerging trends that Hanging is increasingly being adopted by a relatively younger age group who are mostly illiterate and of poor socio-economic status. Hanging being viewed as giving swift painless death and without much expenses and without arousing much suspicion, this mode is increasingly adopted to commit suicide. Dribbling saliva mark, which was a hallmark of Ante-mortem hanging, is increasingly seen in less number of cases. No incidence of fracture of Hyoid bone being seen in this study, due to the fact that most cases were of lower age group and also may be due to most of the victims adopting soft ligatures and low suspension points. Transverse tears in the Carotid arteries were not seen here and on subjecting to Histo-pathological study, we could detect disruption of intimal layer of Carotid artery. Effect of pressure on layers of skin were seen on Histo-pathological study showing vital reaction changes useful for labelling Ante-mortem hanging.