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Yoo, Lee, and Noh: Statistical Analysis of Legal Autopsy Cases Performed in the Jeollabuk-do Province of Korea in 2016
Original Article

Korean J Leg Med 2017;41(4):107-114.

Published online: 19 January 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7580/kjlm.2017.41.4.107

Statistical Analysis of Legal Autopsy Cases Performed in the Jeollabuk-do Province of Korea in 2016

Seung Jin Yoo, Ho Lee, Sang Jae Noh

Department of Forensic Medicine, Chonbuk National University Medical School, Research Institute of Clinical Medicine of Chonbuk National University-Biomedical Research Institute of Chonbuk National University Hospital and Research Institute for Endocrine Sciences, Jeonju, Korea

Correspondence to Sang Jae Noh Department of Forensic Medicine, Chonbuk National University Medical School, Research Institute of Clinical Medicine of Chonbuk National University-Biomedical Research Institute of Chonbuk National University Hospital and Research Institute for Endocrine Sciences, 567 Baekje-daero, Deokjin-gu, Jeonju 54896, Korea Tel: +82-63-270-4678 Fax: +82-63-270-4598 E-mail: sjnoh@jbnu.ac.kr

Received 31 October 201727 November 2017       Accepted 29 November 2017

Copyright © 2017 The Korean Society for Legal Medicine

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

This study aimed to obtain basic regional data of legal autopsy cases observed in the Jeollabuk-do province concerning causes and manner of death. We investigated 170 autopsy cases (114 males [67.0%] and 56 females [33%]) performed at the Department of Forensic Medicine, Chonbuk National University Medical School, in 2016. Of these, seven (4.1%) were children aged <10 years. Regarding the manner of death, there were 95 unnatural deaths (55.9%), 69 natural deaths (40.6%), and six deaths from unknown causes (3.5%). Among the 95 unnatural deaths, 29 suicides (30.5%), 10 homicides (10.5%), 52 accidental deaths (54.7%), and four undetermined deaths (4.2%) were recorded. Concerning causes of unnatural death, there were 39 traumatic injury-related deaths (41.2%), 10 asphyxiations (10.5%), 25 poisonings (26.3%), 13 thermal injury-related deaths (13.7%), and eight deaths due to drowning (8.4%). The most common cause of unnatural death was injury from falls (n=15), followed by agrochemical poisoning (n=12), traffic injury (n=12), and death from fire (n=11). Of 69 natural deaths, 31 were from cardiac diseases (44.9%), eight from cerebral or vascular diseases (11.6%), 12 from digestive system diseases (17.4%), one from respiratory system disease (1.4%), five from endocrine/metabolic/nutritional disorders (7.2%), and nine due to causes of unknown origin (including sudden manhood and sudden infant death syndromes) (13.1%).

Keywords: Autopsy, Cause of death, Manner of death, Statistics, Jeollabuk-do

REFERENCES

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Table 1.
Distribution of age, sex, and manner of death in 170 autopsy cases
Age (yr) Sex Manner of death Total
Unnatural Suicide Homicide Accident Undetermined Natural Unknown Subtotal
≤9 M 1 – 1 – – 3 – 4 007 (4.1)
  F 1 – – 1 – 2 – 3  
10-19 M 1 1 – – – 1 – 2 003 (1.8)
  F 1 1 – – – – – 1  
20-29 M 5 – 1 4 – 4 – 9 010 (5.9)
  F – – – – – 1 – 1  
30-39 M 2 1 1 – – 5 – 7 015 (8.8)
  F 5 5 – – – 3 – 8  
40-49 M 6 2 3 – 1 12 1 19 026 (15.3)
  F 6 2 1 2 1 1 – 7  
50-59 M 22 4 3 15 – 15 – 37 058 (34.1)
  F 13 5 – 6 2 7 1 21  
60-69 M 12 3 1 8 – 7 – 19 022 (12.9)
  F 3 1 – 2 – – – 3  
70-79 M 5 1 2 2 – 4 1 10 017 (10.0)
  F 5 2 1 2 – 1 1 7  
≥80 M 5 – – 5 – 1 – 6 009 (5.3)
  F 1 – – 1 – 2 – 3  
NI M 1 1 – – – – – 1 003 (1.8)
  F – – – – – – 2 2  
  NI – – – – – – – 0  
Subtotal M 60 (63.2) 13 (44.8) 12 (85.7) 34 (70.8) 1 (25.0) 52 (75.4) 2 (33.3) 114 (67.1) 170
  F 35 (36.8) 16 (55.2) 02 (14.3) 14 (29.2) 3 (75.0) 17 (24.6) 4 (66.7) 056 (32.9)  
  NI 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 000  
Total   95 (55.9) 29 (17.0) 14 (8.2)0 48 (28.2) 4 (2.4)0 69 (40.6) 6 (3.5) 170  

Values are presented as number (%).

M, male; F, female; NI, not identified.

Table 2.
Cause and manner of death in 95 unnatural death cases
  Suicide Homicide Accident Undetermined Subtotal Total
M F M F M F M F M F
Trauma 3 2 7 1 20 5 – 1 30 9 39 (41.2)
Blunt force injury – – 2 1 3 – – 1 5 2 07 (17.9)
Sharp force injury – – 4 – 1 – – – 5 0 05 (12.8)
Gunshot injury – – – – – – – – 0 0 00
Traffic injury – – – – 7 5 – – 7 5 12 (30.8)
Fall/Slip-down 3 2 1 – 9 – – – 13 2 15 (38.5)
Asphyxia 2 3 – 1 2 2 – – 4 6 10 (10.5)
Hanging 2 3 – – – – – – 2 3 05 (50.0)
Ligature strangulation – – – – – – – – 0 0 00
Manual strangulation – – – 1 – – – – 0 1 01 (10)
Choking – – – – 2 1 – – 2 1 03 (30)
Smothering – – – – – 1 – – 0 1 01 (10)
Crushing asphyxia – – – – – – – – 0 0 00
Positional asphyxia – – – – – – – – 0 0 00
Poisoning 8 11 1 – 4 1 – – 13 12 25 (26.3)
Ethanol – – – – 3 1 – – 3 1 04 (16.0)
Agrochemicals 6 5 – – 1 – – – 7 5 12 (48.0)
Therapeutic drugs 1 5 – – – – – – 1 5 06 (24.0)
Carbon monoxide 1 1 1 – – – – – 2 1 03 (12.0)
Others – – – – – – – – 0 0 00
Thermal Injury – – – – 11 2 – – 11 2 13 (13.6)
Fire – – – – 10 1 – – 10 1 11 (84.6)
Burn – – – – – – – – 0 0 00
Heat stroke – – – – – – – – 0 0 00 (0)
Hypothermia – – – – 1 1 – – 1 1 02 (15.4)
Drowning – – – – 2 5 – 1 2 6 08 (8.4)
Subtotal 13 16 8 2 39 15 0 2 60 35 95
Total 29 (30.5) 10 (10.5) 54 (56.8) 2 (2.1) 95  

Values are presented as number (%).

M, male; F, female.

Table 3.
Manner of death and fatal site of blunt- and sharp-force injury
  Head Neck Chest Abdomen Extremity Multiple TSH PSH Total
Blunt force injury                  
Suicide – – – – – – – – 0
Homicide 1 – – – – 1 1 – 3
Accident 1 – – – – 1 1 – 3
Undetermined – – – – – – – – 0
Sharp force injury                  
Suicide – – – – – – – – 0
Homicide – – 2 – 1 1 – – 4
Accident – – – 1 – – – – 1
Undetermined – – – – – – – – 0

TSH, traumatic shock; PSH, primary shock.

Table 4.
Cause of death in 69 natural death cases
  Cause of death M F Subtotal Total
Heart Ischemic disease 17 4 21 (67.7) 31 (44.9)
  Myocardial disease – –    
  Valvular disease – –    
  Hypertensive disease 3 – 3 (9.7)  
  Others 5 2 7 (22.6)  
Vascular system Cerebral vessels 4 3 7 (87.5) 08 (11.6)
  Aorta – –    
  Pulmonary embolism – 1 1 (12.5)  
Respiratory system Larynx/Pharynx – –   01 (1.4)
  Trachea – –    
  Lung 1 – 1 (100)  
Digestive system Stomach/Intestine 1 – 1 (8.3) 12 (17.4)
  Liver 6 3 9 (75.0)  
  Pancreas 2 – 2 (16.7)  
Endocrine/Metabolic/Nutritional disorder Chronic alcoholism – –   05 (7.2)
  Diabetes 4 – 4 (80.0)  
  Malnutrition 1 – 1 (20.0)  
  Others – –    
Pregnancy/Delivery/Puerperium Uterus – –   00
  Placenta – –    
  Embolism – –    
Perinatal conditions Hypoxia – –   00
  Others – –    
Ill-defined mortality SMDS 4 – 4 (44.4) 09 (13.1)
  SIDS 3 2 5 (55.6)  
  miscellaneous – –    
Miscellaneous Infection 1 – 1 (33.3) 03 (4.4)
  High altitude illness – 1 1 (33.3)  
  Renal failure – 1 1 (33.3)  
Total   52 (76.5) 16 (23.5)   69

Values are presented as number (%).

M, male; F, female; SMDS, sudden manhood death syndrome; SIDS, sudden infant death syndrome.

Table 5.
Manner of death in children under the age of 10 years
Sex Neonatal Infant Preschool Prepubertal Subtotal Total
M F M F M F M F M F
Unnatural death – – – – – – – – – – 2
Suicide – – – – – – – – – – 0
Homicide – – – – 1 – – – – 1 1
Accident – – – 1 – – – – 1 – 1
Undetermined – – – – – – – – – – 0　
Natural – – 2 2 1 – – – 3 2 5
Unknown – – – – – – – – – – 0
Subtotal – – 2 3 2 – – – 4 3 7
Total – – 2 3 2 – – – 4 3 7

M, male; F, female.

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