Fatal falls from great height in Sousse (Tunisia): Study of 141 medicolegal autopsy cases.

Abstract

Introduction: Falls from great heights constitute a violent trauma that can lead to death. This represents a suspicious death, leading to initiate legal proceedings with in particular the practice of an autopsy.

Aims: to determine the features of victims of falls from height and relations between medico-legal form of the death, the height of the fall and the nature of traumatic injuries Methods: A retrospective study about 141 cases of death after fall from great height. Data were collected at the Legal Medicine Department of the Farhat Hached University Hospital in Sousse (Tunisia) over a period of 14 years from 2007 to 2020.

Results: The average age of the victims was 37±12.8 years with a sex ratio of 6.05. Half of them were day laborers. The majority had no history of psychiatric illness (91.5%). The majority of victims (41.8%) fell from a height of 3 to 6 meters. Regarding injuries, rib fractures (52.4) were predominant, especially on the right side followed by skull fractures (31.2%). A significant difference in the prevalence of rib cage lesions in the groups over 9 meters in height (p<0.05) was found. The lesions of the lower limbs were proportional to the increase in the height of the fall. Deaths were accidental in 80.8% and suicides in 13.5%.

Conclusion: In cases of high falls, a forensic autopsy is essential to make a complete evaluation of the injuries, to search a correlation between severity of injuries and height of the fall and finally to orientate towards the medico legal form of the fall.