Trends of Hanging Deaths in Vadodara– An Autopsy based Prospective Study

The position of knot (typical/atypical) and type of hanging (complete/partial) play an important role in the causation of death in hanging. Ligature material and ligature mark also provides information regarding manner and cause of death.Total 1803 medicolegal autopsies were performedduring one year study period, out of which 189 (10.48%) cases were of hanging. In our study, 134 (70.89%) were male and 55 (29.10%) cases were female with male to female ratio of 1:0.4. We observed that in 104 (55.03%) cases the hanging was complete whereas 85 (44.97%) cases the hanging was partial.The typical hanging cases were 62 (32.8%) andatypical hangings cases were 127 (67.2%). Soft ligature materials were used in 143 (75.66%) cases. Hard ligature materials were used in 46 (24.34%) cases.Dupatta, a soft-ligature material mostcommonly used in all cases.