Comparison of Clinical and Autopsy Diagnosis of Cause of Death at Belgaum, Karnataka

Introduction: Law has not tried to define death. By Black's law dictionary, death means "cessation of life or ceasing to exist". Medico-legal definition of death is 'permanent and irreversible cessation of functions of the three interlinked vital systems of the body which are called the tripod of life, namely the nervous, circulatory and respiratory systems'. Objectives: 1. To study the autopsy diagnosis of cause of death. 2. To compare the clinical and autopsy diagnosis of cause of death. 3. To evaluate the accuracy of clinical diagnosis of cause of death. Results: During the present study period, a total of 100 medicolegal autopsies were conducted. Out of these, 58 (58%) cases were Road Traffic Accident (RTA), burns cases were 24(24%) followed by poisoning cases 8 (8%). There were 4 cases of fall from height (4%), snake bite 3 (3%) cases and 3 (3%) hanging cases. Discussion: It was observed that in 6 (10%) cases out of 58 cases of the total RTA cases, there was discordance regarding the opinion of cause of death. In the other 52 cases i.e. in 90% of the cases there was complete agreement with respect to the cause of death. Conclusion: From this study it is concluded that medico legal autopsies revealed many unexpected findings that are of clinical importance, and a continued emphasis on autopsy correlation is necessary for the improvement of the quality of patient care.