Medico-Legal Update

V Yogiraj ¹, R Chaithanya ¹, Vijayakumar B Jatti ², Anand N Patil ³, C Bharat ⁴

Affiliations
1 Dept Of Forensic Medicine, Vims, Bellary, Karnataka, IN
2 Dept of Forensic Medicine, VIMS, Bellary, Karnataka, IN
3 Dept. of Forensic Medicine, RIMS, Raichur, Karnataka, IN
4 Dept. of Medicine, Al-Ameen Medical college, Bijapur, Karnataka, IN
5 Dept of Pathology, VIMS, Bellary, Karnataka, IN

Abstract

Snake bite remains an underestimated cause of accidental death in modern India.The snakes most commonly associated with human mortality in India are cobra (Naja naja naja), krait (Bungarus caeruleus), Russell's viper (Vipera russelli) and saw scaled viper (Echis carinatus). With approximately 45900 deaths occurring annually in India, a large proportion of snake bites occur when people work barefoot in the fields or while walking at night or early morning through fields or along roads. The study was carried out over a period of 2-year (January 2010-December 2011), where 1,637 autopsies were performed. Out of these forty three autopsies (2.62%) performed were deaths due to snake bite. The male to female ratio was 1.5:1. Males succumbed to snake bites twice frequently (60.46%) when compared to females (39.53%). The age ranged between 01-61 years (16.27% of them belonged to the 1-12 years of age-group, 69.76% belonged to 13-40 years of age group and 13.95% belonged to 41-61 years of age group). The fang marks was seen in 28 cases on the lower extremities. There was congestion of lungs, intestine, cardiac tissue and especially kidneys. The major cause of death was renal failure.

Keywords

Autopsy, Acute Renal Failure, Envenomation, Histopathology, Ophitoxaemia

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