Traffic accidents deaths occur either at the time of the accident or within 30 days due to injury caused by the accident [1]. By 2020, traffic accident injuries will be the second cause of disability in developing countries and the third cause of death worldwide [2].

Injuries due to traffic accidents are one of the three main causes of death in Iran. All cases of this type of death are autopsied in the Forensic Medicine Organization and the medical centers perform verbal autopsy and determine the cause of death. Therefore, in this study, we decided to investigate the cause of death reported by verbal and forensic autopsy and compare the results.

2. Materials and Methods

This cross-sectional study included all patients who were admitted to Vali-e-Asr Hospital in Arak City during 2016 due to injuries caused by traffic accidents and were referred to a forensic medical center for autopsy after death. Inclusion criteria were the death of the hospitalized patient within 30 days after the traffic accident, and exclusion criteria were the death of the hospitalized patient after 30 days of the accident and no medical (clinical) autopsy. After the death of the traffic accident patient, verbal autopsy information (i.e., information obtained from the patient’s history and case evidence) was collected and recorded. Due to the fact that all the bodies of traffic accidents are referred to forensic medicine to report the cause of death, medical autopsy information was also collected and recorded. Finally, a comparison was made between the results of these two types of autopsies.

3. Results

This cross-sectional study was performed in 2016. Out of 8153 traffic accident patients referred to Vali-e-Asr Hospital in Arak City, 109 cases resulted in death (1.33%). Eighteen patients who did not undergo medical autopsy due to various causes were excluded from the study. The causes of death due to traffic accidents based on verbal and medical autopsy are shown in Tables 1 and 2.

The most common cause of death, according to the verbal autopsy results, was “multiple injuries”, which occurred in 45 (49.5%) patients. The second most common cause of death was “head trauma” which occurred in 28 (30.8%) patients (Table 1). 

The causes of death of patients in traffic accidents were examined after a forensic autopsy and it was found that the most common cause of death of patients in traffic accidents was head trauma, which was present in 42 patients (46.1%) of the total patients. The second most common cause of death in these patients based on forensic autopsy was multiple fractures, which occurred in 33 patients (36.2%) of the total patients (Table 2).

Comparison of the causes of death of patients in traffic accidents based on oral and forensic autopsies showed that the cause of death of these patients was the same in 51 cases (56%) and was different in 40 patients (44%). Forensic clinical autopsy data were not available in 18 patients and therefore their results could not be compared.

4. Discussion

Out of 8153 patients in traffic accidents referred to Vali-e-Asr Hospital in Arak City in 2016, a total of 109 patients (1.33%) died. The most common cause of death, according to the verbal autopsy results, was “multiple injuries” in 45 patients (49.5%). According to forensic autopsies, the most common cause of death of patients due to traffic accidents was head trauma, which was present in 42 patients (46.1%) of the total number of patients. According to verbal and forensic autopsies, the causes of death of patients in traffic accidents were similar in 51 cases (56%) and different in 40 cases (44%).

The results of studies conducted by A Montazeri and NB Kumar showed that head trauma is the leading cause of death due to traffic accidents [16, 17]. These results are consistent with the results of medical autopsy in the present study.

5. Conclusion

In general, the results of this study showed that the frequency of deaths among road accident victims who referred to Vali-e-Asr Medical Center in Arak City was 1.33%. According to the existing standards and considering that the mortality rate in this center is less than 1.5%, it seems that the quality of services in this center is desirable. The results of this study showed that most road accident patients lose their lives during the first 24 hours of the accident, which shows that most of these deaths are inevitable due to the severity of injuries.

Ethical Considerations

Compliance with ethical guidelines

This study ethcally approved by the ethics committee of the Arak University of Medical Sciences (Code: IR.ARAKMU.REC.1395.226).

Funding

This study financially supported by the Vice Chancellor for Research and Technology of Arak University of Medical Sciences.

Authors' contributions

Conceptualization, comparison of results: Mohammad Jamalian; Research design and collaboration in sampling: Mohsen Islamdoost, Ali Rezaei; Sampling: Shaban Ali Alizadeh; Text Review: All Authors

Conflicts of interest

The authors declared no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Vice Chancellor for Research and Technology of Arak University of Medical Sciences and the Vali-e-Asr Hospital Clinical Research Development Center.

 

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