A PROSPECTIVE-STUDY OF CORONERS AUTOPSIES IN UNIVERSITY-COLLEGE HOSPITAL, IBADAN, NIGERIA

The present study reviews 876 consecutive coroner's autopsies performe d in the Department of Pathology, University College Hospital, Ibadan over a two-year period (1 February 1991 to 31 January 1993). The hospi tal autopsy rate during the study period was 36.2%, and 62.5 per cent of these post-mortems were medico-legal cases. The most common indicat ions for coroner's autopsies were sudden natural deaths (55.6%), follo wed by accidental deaths (35.3%). The proportions of maternal (4.3%), homicidal (3.1%) and suicidal (0.3%) deaths were much lower. The male to female ratio was 1.7 to 1. Ninety-one (10.4%) of the cases fell wit hin the paediatric age group and the peak age incidence for these case s was in the 5-14 years age group. The remaining 785 (89.6%) cases wer e adults and the peak age incidence for these cases was in the fourth decade of life. The most common cause of sudden natural death was card iovascular disease, of which hypertension constituted the majority of cases. Other major causes of sudden death included pneumonia, meningit is, typhoid fever and neoplastic diseases. Road traffic accidents acco unted for 78 per cent of accidental deaths followed by falls (13.3%) a nd burns (4.6%). Abortions, post-partum haemorrhage and eclampsia were the major causes of maternal deaths in the present study. Homicidal d eaths were eight times more frequent in male than female victims and t he commonest mode of death was gunshot injuries. Suicidal deaths remai n extremely uncommon in African patients, as confirmed by our study.