Introduction: Clinical and forensic autopsies are the best methods for determining cause of death. The aim of this study was to determine demographic and etiologic characteristics in geriatric forensic cases analyzed in Erzurum, Turkey.
Materials and methods: Autopsy reports and prosecution documents of decedents aged 65 and older autopsied in the Morgue Specialization Department of the Forensic Medicine Institute, Erzurum Division between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2015 were screened retrospectively.
Results: The study included 399 subjects with a mean age of 74.38 ± 7.28 years. A large proportion of the subjects were in the young and middle old age group (n = 218, 54.63%) and male (n = 286, 71.68%). Autopsy was performed on 198 (49.62%) of the subjects, cause of death was determined by post-mortem external examination in 199 (49.87%), and documents were unavailable for 2 subjects. Cause of death was determined as natural in 130 (32.58%) of the decedents and unnatural in 269 (67.42%). The most common natural cause of death was cardiovascular disease (n = 94, 76.4%). Unnatural causes of death included accident in 223 (82.90%), suicide in 25 (9.30%) and homicide in 21 (7.80%) of the decedents. A large proportion of the accidents were traffic accidents (n = 120, 53.80%). The most common method of committing suicide was hanging (n = 15, 60%), whereas homicides were most often committed by blunt force trauma (n = 9, 42.86%).
Conclusion: Our data are consistent with the literature, allowing for some variation based on regional sociocultural characteristics.
Keywords: Autopsies; Elderly.
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