Pattern of coroner's autopsies at Health Sciences Authority, Singapore: a retrospective study (2009-2010)

Within a two-year period between 2009 and 2010, the Forensic Medicine Division of the Health Sciences Authority conducted a total of 3560 autopsies on cases reported to the coroner. This retrospective study reviews the type and distribution of these cases, and serves as a pilot study for future analysis of the various subgroups. Nearly half of these deaths (48.93%) are a result of natural disease processes, of which a cardiac cause by far predominates (64.64%), followed by diseases of the respiratory (16.92%) and central nervous (5.28%) systems. Of the deaths by unnatural means (51.07%), a substantial number of these deaths are consequent to fall from height, i.e. off a building (35.86%), with a smaller proportion of death arising from traffic and industrial accidents (17.60%), asphyxia (14.25%) and short distance falls (11.00%). Fall from height is the leading mode of suicide in this densely populated urban city where 85% of the population reside in high-rise apartments.