Retrospective study of analysis of cardiac injuries in autopsied hearts at a centre in South India

Background: Morbidity and mortality related to cardiac injuries are serious health concerns worldwide. The cardiac injuries could be due to traumatic blunt-force injuries or due to natural events such as injuries secondary to ischemia and infarction. The most prevalent type of lethal injuries is due to physical trauma. Cardiovascular injuries due to natural events constitute 31% of total cardiac injuries. Aim: The aim of this retrospective study was to give an overview of the trends in cardiac injury epidemiology in Manipal during 2011 to 2015. Materials and Methodology: The research was conducted in the Department of Forensic Medicine, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal. All cases due to cardiac injuries between 2011 and 2015 were included in this study. The data collected included age, sex, and type of cardiac injury, which was tabulated and analyzed for descriptive statistics using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. Results: Cardiac injuries constituted 35.8% of the total number of autopsies that were conducted during the study period. 80.5% of the victims were male. Maximum number of victims were from the 3 ^rd decade of life. Most of the cardiac injuries (38.4%) were caused by road traffic accidents. The most frequent cardiac abnormality seen in our study was subendocardial hemorrhage, 38.6 % of the total cardiac injuries. Due to traumatic events, the most frequent cardiac injury seen was contusion, 5.4% and lacerations, 4.1% of injuries. Hyperemic area was seen in 13% and white patch in 12.4% of cases. The most commonly occluded artery was the left anterior descending artery, 53.4%. The time interval between the occurrence of the incident and death of the victim ranged from few minutes to 2 months. Discussion: The findings of this study give us an insight to the pattern and magnitude of deaths due to cardiac injuries in a South Indian region, given that only a very low percentage of the patients who sustain cardiac injury reach hospital alive. The injury pattern helps the clinician and other researchers to concentrate on these injured parts while treating and conducting research, respectively. Conclusion: More autopsy studies should be conducted to define the characteristics of population based cardiac injuries.