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Abstract
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Background
Burn deaths are a major public health problem in our country. In India, about 60,000 people suffer from burns annually, more than 50,000 are treated in hospitals and about 10,000 succumb to thermal injuries. Aims
To study the demographic and the injury profiles of the fatal burn deaths, brought to the mortuary of the District Hospital, Gulbarga attached to department of forensic medicine,ESIC Medical College, Gulbarga. Subject and Method
All (107) autopsies of the burn victims which were performed between April 2013 and May 2014 were analyzed with respect to the age-gender distribution, diurnal & seasonal variation, place of occurrence, source of the fire, survival period, body surface area which was involved and the cause of death.
RESULTS
In our study of fatal burn deaths, 71.96% of the victims were females with male to female ration being 1:2.5. Majority (70%) of the burn victims were between the ages of 20-40 years with peak incidence at 21-30 years (33.64%). The highest proportion occurred in winter (45.79%). The incidence was high in day (60.75%) than in night (39.25%). The commonest location for burn deaths was home locations (76.63%). Accidental burning was observed in 74.8% followed by suicidal (23.4%) and homicidal burning (1.8%).The majority of the study victims (89.71%) sustained flame burns. 92.5% of the 107 victims sustained more than 50% of total body surface area (TBSA) burns. The majority of deaths (89.71%) due to burns occurred within 24hrs of the incident. In almost all cases (89.71%) of the 107 victims with fire and flames as cause of death had signs of vitality (soot in airways and/or digestive tract) at autopsy. The major cause of death was Hypovolaemic shock and Toxemia 57% cases, followed by neurogenic shock in 32.7%, Septicemia& pneumonia 8.4% and multi-organ failure in 1.86% of victims of fatal burns.
CONCLUSION
The results of this study provide the necessary information to develop proper burn prevention programs, thereby reducing the frequency of burns and burn-related deaths.
Language: en |