Deaths due to hanging – A two-year retrospective study of cases from north India

Hanging is one of the most common methods used for suicide throughout the world. In this study we did a comprehensive analysis of the cases of death due to hanging, brought to a tertiary care center, for postmortem examination. A 2-year retrospective study was conducted at our institute using the actual data of the post-mortem reports from 1st January 2022 to 30th 31st December 2023. All the cases which presented with a ligature mark were chosen for the present study. A total of 1758 postmortems were conducted during the study period, of which cases of hanging were 87. Of these, most were of age group of 21-30 years (42.5%). Males were involved in almost two thirds of the cases. Most of the victims were in private service (28.7%), followed by laborers (19.5%). In most of the cases, the deceased preferred his/ her own residence, & closed space was preferred over open area. In most of the cases, ligature material used was a ’chunni’ (35.6%and the ceiling fan was the favored point of suspension (78%). Postmortem examination of the cases was performed within 24 hours in 57.5%of cases. Married males preferred suicide by hanging, as compared to unmarried males. In all the cases, hyoid bone was found to be intact. Complete hanging was seen in almost 80%of the cases. Viscera was sent in all the cases to rule out any concomitant intoxication, but reports are still awaited in most cases. The incidence rate of hanging was 4.9%in our study.