Journal of Indian Academy of Forensic Medicine
  • Year: 2016
  • Volume: 38
  • Issue: 2

Sudden deaths due to respiratory diseases in a metropolitan city of south India: A three year prospective autopsy study

1Assistant Professor, Dept. of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, P K Das Institute of Medical Sciences, Vaniamkulam, Ottapalam, Kerala, 679 522

2Asstt. Professor, Dept of Forensic Medicine, Srinivas Institute Of Medical Sciences & Research Centre, Surathkal, Mangalore, Karnataka

3Asstt. Professor, Dept of Forensic Medicine, Kempegowda Institute of Medical Sciences, Bangalore, Karnataka

4Professor, Dept of Forensic Medicine, Kempegowda Institute of Medical Sciences, Bangalore, Karnataka

*Corresponding Author: Email id: drviswakanth@gmail.com

Online published on 2 March, 2017.

Abstract

Forensic pathologists not only deal with criminal, accidental and suicidal deaths, but also with a wide range of deaths from natural causes. Many of them are sudden, unexpected, clinically unexplained or obscure. Very few studies exist solely focusing on sudden deaths due to respiratory diseases. Hence a 3 year duration prospective study was undertaken on sudden deaths at KIMS hospital Bangalore, India. Among these 176 sudden deaths, 42 deaths (23.8%) were due to respiratory causes. Majority of the victims (71.4%) died due to bronchopneumonia. Maximum period of survival after onset of terminal symptoms was less than 1 hour (16.6%).

Keywords

Sudden natural deaths, Respiratory diseases, Bronchopneumonia, Autopsy