Outline and Medico-legal Drift of Asphyxial Deaths

Cases of asphyxial death are frequently come across and the numbers are remarkable now-a-days. The study was aimed to estimate the frequency and to determine the socio-demographic pattern of the victims of asphyxial death. It was a cross-sectional variety of descriptive study and carried out in the Department of Forensic Medicine, Dhaka Medical College, Bangladesh from 1st January 2018 to 31st December 2019. A predesigned proforma was made first, and then various data were assembled, tabulated and analyzed there. In the midst of 2199 medicolegal autopsies, there were 224 cases of asphyxial death. Male victims (62.05%) were mostly found and the most affected age group was 30-39 years (35.26%). Victims were predominantly married (53.57%) and were mainly from urban areas (38.39%). The Muslims (76.78%) were the major victims followed by the Hindus (17.41%), Christians (2.67%) and the Buddhists (1.78%). Maximum victims were unemployed (31.69%) followed by students, day laborers & cultivators. Hangings (54.01%) were mostly encountered followed by drowning (23.21%) and throttling (7.14%). Majority of the cases were suicidal (58.48%) followed by homicidal (24.55%) and accidental (16.96%). The main provoking factors in suicidal cases were unemployment (22.13%) followed by failure in examination (20.61%) and domestic violence (12.97%). Hangings were proven to be suicidal. In cases of drowning manner of death could not be given and throttling were homicidal by autopsy.