Evaluation of occupational accident cases whose autopsies were performed in Ankara Institute of Forensic Medicine in Terms of Forensic Medicine

Introduction and Aim: International Labor Organization defines occupational accident as an unexpected and unplanned occurrence, including acts of violence, arising out of or in connection with work which results in one or more workers incurring a personal injury, disease, or death. Occupational accident cases occupy an important position in forensic medicine applications. In our study, death cases that were reported to have died due to occupational accidents in the five-year period between 2014 and 2018, and whose autopsies were performed in Ankara Institute of Forensic Medicine were examined in terms of their sociodemographic characteristics and evaluated together with the information of time of occurrence, cause of death, toxicological and histopathological evidence. The aim of this study is to draw attention to the occupational accidents that have important social and economical impacts worldwide and to discuss the precautions that could be taken. Methods: A total of 848 cases among 9665 cases in total whose autopsies were performed in Ankara Institute of Forensic Medicine between 01.01.2014- 01.01.2019 and whose cause of death is occupational accident were evaluated. Results: Of total cases, 97% were male and 3% was female. Mean age of patients was 42.2 years. 59.1 of the cases were workers, 9.7% was business owners, and 7.3% was truck/bus drivers. Cases occurred most frequently in construction (39.5%) and manufacturing (13.8%). Female cases died more frequently because of natural causes than male cases (p<0.05). Fall from height cases was 37.9% of the total cases, and they found to have occurred mostly in construction. Conclusion: Cases due to occupational accidents in our study were mostly preventable. Prevention of occupational accidents is possible with cooperation of multi disciplines and taking preventive measures at every stage of work and with strict control of these measures. The causes of death due to occupational accidents, risk factors and possible preventive measures should be identified to minimize and more ideally to eliminate the work accidents.