Scientific Research and Essays

  • Abbreviation: Sci. Res. Essays
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 1992-2248
  • DOI: 10.5897/SRE
  • Start Year: 2006
  • Published Articles: 2767

Full Length Research Paper

Evaluation of childhood autopsies in Sivas, Turkey

  Celal Butun1*, Fatma Mutlu Kukul Guven2, Halis Dokgoz3,Sevki Hakan Eren2, Ilhan Korkmaz2 and Fatma Yucel Beyaztas1
    1Department of Forensic Medicine, Medical School, University of Cumhuriyet, Sivas-Turkey. 2Department of Emergency Medicine, Medical School, University of Cumhuriyet, Sivas-Turkey. 3Department of Forensic Medicine, Medical School, University of Mersin, Mersi, Turkey.  
Email: [email protected], [email protected]

  •  Accepted: 15 November 2010
  •  Published: 31 December 2010

Abstract

 

 

The aim of this study is to determine the features and changes in the medicolegal childhood deaths that occurred in Sivas, Turkey; and to contribute in the establishment of a database on childhood deaths. The authors evaluated the deaths of children aged to 0 to 18 years, whose autopsies were performed in Sivas Cumhuriyet University between 2006 and 2009. The childhood deaths were reviewed with respect to sex, age, event region, event date, event type, crème scene, cause of death. The evaluation of 90 cases was made by use of Chi-square test in SPSS (Ver: 10.0). During four years, of 547 forensic death cases that underwent autopsy, 90 were aged between 0 to 18 years. 57 (63.3%) of the cases were male. The main cause of death was traffic accident in 24 (26.7%) cases. In order to avoid children deaths, the preventive and curative health services should be strengthened, and the training programs must be provided for parents. To avoid child abuse, it should be a concern of the government bodies and civil society. As a result, the child protection programme is needed in our regions and new regulations should be enacted to protect children against accidents, injuries, hazards and abuse.

 

Key words: Childhood deaths, accident, abuse, autopsy, forensic medicine.