An Epidemiological and Medicolegal Study of Electrocution in Varanasi, India

The passage of a substantial current through the tissue can cause skin lesion, organ damage and death. Fatalities are usually accidental, in both domestic and industrial environment. Cases of injury or death from electric shocks occur when the electrical main breaks or when the two end fall on a person, thus making a short circuit, or when workman grasp the ends of a live wire, or stands on one with the other in his hand.

The present retrospective study has been conducted for the period of 5 consecutive years i.e. 2009 to 2013 based on autopsy record of the unnatural death cases resulting from electrocution deaths. During study period total no. of unnatural Death cases were 10185 and deaths due to electrocution were 147. These cases were brought to the Department of Forensic Medicine, IMS, BHU, Varanasi and have been analyzed retrospectively.

Unnatural deaths reported during the study period due to deaths were averaging 147. Male electrocution deaths dominated over female in the ratio of 10.3:1. Predominant age group were found to be 31–40 years (34%) followed by age group 21–30 years (29%) and 11–20 years showing (15%) reflecting that young adults were more involved in such type of deaths. Most of the deceased were from the unknown marital status (86%) followed by married (7%) and unmarried of (7%) are equal. Involvement of rural population is more (97%) than urban population (2%). Religion wise Hindus (95%) predominated over other religions.

Analysis of data for retrospective study suggests that age, sex, habitat, marital status, religion and manner of death significantly affect community. In the present study electrocution death was 7rth most common cause of death after road traffic accident, burn, poisoning, Violent Asphyxial death, railway accident, firearm injury, in Varanasi region.