Traitement médico-judiciaire de la mort subite inattendue du sujet jeune à Toulouse : bilan des pratiques avant mise en place d’un protocole

Abstract

Introduction

Sudden death of adults is a natural death occurring within the hour from the onset of symptoms. It may be of cardiac origin and, in young people, there may be a genetic origin which requires family screening to prevent further deaths. These events justify the forensic institutes investigations on requisition. The aim of this study was to assess the practices of the Toulouse forensic medicine department in order to evaluate the management of these victims.

Material and methods

The autopsy reports of subjects under 45 years old, carried out between 01/01/2012 and 31/12/2021, were extracted from the database of the forensic medicine department. Only subjects who were not putrefied, not drug addicts and whose causes of death were unexplained or of cardiac origin, were retained. Subjects with ischaemic heart disease were excluded. Epidemiological and autopsy data, as well as the results of toxicological, anatomopathological and genetic analysis were collected and analysed.

Results

Of the 5947 forensic autopsies performed in this period, 164 individuals were included. The population was predominantly male (71%), with an average age of 32 ± 8.5 years. The medical history was mainly psychiatric (17%) or cardiovascular (11.6%). Death occurred in the majority of cases at home (67%). Half of our population was obese or overweight. At autopsy, 52% of the hearts were normal. In 25% of cases, cardiomegaly was found. Toxicological and anatomopathological tests were almost always made, but they were only analysed in 74% and 63% of cases respectively. Genetic tests were taken in only 30% of cases and less than one-third of them were analysed. The results of the toxicological analysis could be recovered in 78% of cases and showed that more than 1/3 of the subjects had a lethal dose of at least one toxic substance. At the anatomopathological analysis, a majority of the hearts were normal and only 35% of the macroscopically pathological hearts had microscopic lesions. Genetic analysis results could only be retrieved in 3 cases and only one patient had a mutation.

Conclusion

Our retrospective study shows that toxicological and anatomopathological investigations are insufficiently performed in cases of sudden death in young people. However, a non-negligible proportion of these subjects die from a toxic cause. Genetic tests and analysis are very inadequate. An improvement in practices with the systematic tests and their analysis is therefore advisable.