TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2023//
TI  - Fatal falls from great height in Sousse (Tunisia): Study of 141 medicolegal autopsy cases
JO  - Tunisie médicale, La
A1  - Chelly, Souhir
A1  - Mtira, Abir
A1  - Gharesellaoui, Sarra
A1  - Hassine, Majed
A1  - Jedidi, Maher
A1  - Mahjoub, Mohamed
A1  - Masmoudi, Tasnim
SP  - 800
EP  - 804
VL  - 101
IS  - 11
N2  - INTRODUCTION: Falls from great heights constitute a violent trauma that can lead to death. This represents a suspicious death, leading to initiate legal proceedings with in particular the practice of an autopsy. AIMS: to determine the features of victims of falls from height and relations between medico-legal form of the death, the height of the fall and the nature of traumatic injuries Methods: A retrospective study about 141 cases of death after fall from great height. Data were collected at the Legal Medicine Department of the Farhat Hached University Hospital in Sousse (Tunisia) over a period of 14 years from 2007 to 2020. <br><br>RESULTS: The average age of the victims was 37±12.8 years with a sex ratio of 6.05. Half of them were day laborers. The majority had no history of psychiatric illness (91.5%). The majority of victims (41.8%) fell from a height of 3 to 6 meters. Regarding injuries, rib fractures (52.4) were predominant, especially on the right side followed by skull fractures (31.2%). A significant difference in the prevalence of rib cage lesions in the groups over 9 meters in height (p<0.05) was found. The lesions of the lower limbs were proportional to the increase in the height of the fall. Deaths were accidental in 80.8% and suicides in 13.5%. <br><br>CONCLUSION: In cases of high falls, a forensic autopsy is essential to make a complete evaluation of the injuries, to search a correlation between severity of injuries and height of the fall and finally to orientate towards the medico legal form of the fall.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0041-4131
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/
ID  - ref1
ER  -