AN ANALYSIS OF POSTMORTEM EXAMINATION IN SUDDEN NATURAL DEATH IN ADULTS

Sudden natural death includes death as an expected outcome in patients with knownillness and unexpected outcome in others which occurs within 24 hours of onset of symptoms. Thepresent study is focused with a system wise analysis of cases of sudden death among adults and totrace the most common cause of death. The medical report data were collected from the reports of124 patients from January 2010 to October 2011 from the Department of Forensic Medicine and the Department of Pathology, Coimbatore Medical College, Coimbatore with history of sudden death. Thepresent study reveals that diseases of the heart accounts for approximately 86 of all sudden naturaldeaths with atherosclerotic coronary artery disease being the underlying cause of approximately 72 ofcardiovascular deaths. Respiratory diseases, central nervous system diseases, sepsis andunexplained death accounted for the remainder.