Autopsy Study of Sudden Death in Younger Aged People of Central Gujarat

Background: Incidences of sudden deaths (SD) are increasing day by day, especially in younger people. During routine practice, forensic persons have to deal not only criminal, accidental and suicidal deaths, but a large amount of cases of sudden deaths also. Most of the sudden deaths of younger victims are unexpected, clinically unexplained or otherwise obscure. Aims & Objectives: The present study was undertaken to know the major contributory causes of death in young victims of sudden death and to identify high risk groups among these people. Methods: The present study is a prospective and observational study, which was conducted in the Department of Forensic Medicine, S.S.G. Hospital and Medical College, Baroda. All the cases of sudden deaths, which were brought to us for autopsy examination during the one year period from 1st March 2013 to 28th February 2014, were selected for this study to find out the cause of death. Results: In our study most of the victims of sudden death were male in their 4th decade of life whose lifestyle was either sedentary or with moderate work in which sudden unconscious was the chief presenting complain and died due to pathology of cardiovascular system including severe degree of coronary atherosclerosis. Conclusion: Our study shows that the incidences of sudden death are quite high in younger age people and coronary narrowing was the major contributory cause of sudden death with cardiovascular origin and the highest number of deaths were reported in the male who were in their 4th decade of life. ?