A retrospektive study on forensic deaths that occurred in Gaziantep province between years of 2005-2008

In this study, a retrospective analysis of 2372 forensic death cases were utilizedbetween years of 2005-2008 in Gaziantep province. The intention was to get a profileon forensic deaths in Gaziantep province to enlighten cases to get probable precautions.Forensic cases considered were 1863 male (78.9%) and 509 female (21.5%). Accordingto notification taken by the public prosecuter; the highest number of forensic deathcases were noticed in age group of 15-49 with 51.7%. It was also found that 1352(57%) the cases were mostly caused by accidents. As postmortem examination, only708 cases (29.8%) were exposed to autopsy and among them only 1172 cases (49.4%)were examined by only a single practitioner. Upon examination on deaths occured forthe postmortem examination of the forensic death cases that had occurred, the crushinghead traumas were taken in the 1st place having 38% ratio in overall search.Deaths which the causes cannot be proven with missing objective datauncertainties have to be evaluated as forensic death cases. Autopsy is the mostsignificant method to determine the cause of death and the mechanism of death. In orderfor the forensic autopsies to be performed in a correct and complete manner, it isessential to have a forensic expert to during the postmortem examination. The point isthat the number of forensic experts must be increased. In addition to that there must bean obligation to have a forensic expert during postmortem examination.Whatever the cause of death is, when it is utilized as forensic case, differentsolutions must be produced by the experts on the subject to improve the infrastructureon postmortem examination. This will definitely require the expertise knowledge, andlegal regulations to perform a proper autopsy for all death cases.