The Epidemiology and Patterns of Head Injuries with Skull Fractures in Homicidal Deaths

The present prospective study aims to establish the incidence and patterns of head injuries with skull fractures in homicidal deaths which were subjected to post-mortem examination in the mortuary of a tertiary teaching hospital for a period of two years. The study revealed that among the 10137 autopsies conducted in the study period, homicidal deaths accounted to 211(2.1%) cases. The main study population i.e. homicidal head injuries with skull fractures accounted for 0.96% of total autopsies (97 cases), 4% of total head injuries and 46% of total homicides, 92.4% of total homicidal head injuries. Majority of the victims were aged between 21–30 years (37.1%). Males comprised the majority of victims as compared to females in the ratio 4.7: 1. Most of the deaths occurred in places other than their residence (61.9%). Majority of the fatalities were caused by blunt weapon only (85.6%). Majority were associated with contusion of scalp (53.6%). 79.4% showed only skull fractures & 20.6% showed association with other causes of death in combination with strangulation (8.3%). Linear fracture (52.6%) of the skull was the commonest pattern among the skull fractures. Frontal bone was the commonest bone involved (16.5%). The commonest intracranial haemorrhage was found in cases with combination of subdural & subarachnoid haemorrhages (59.8%).