Pattern of the cause of death in adult males - a perspective on autopsy.

Objective: To determine the causes of death on autopsy in adult male patients in order to provide a baseline data for health care policy makers.
Design: An observational study.
Place and Duration of Study: Pathology Departments of Army Medical College, Rawalpindi and Combined Military Hospital, Kharian, a tertiary care hospital, between 1982-2001.
Patients and Methods: Data was taken from the autopsy record of the pathology departments and analysed for the causes of death.
Results: A total of 626 autopsies performed between 1982-2001 were analysed. Infectious diseases, malignancies and miscellaneous conditions comprised 209, 67 and 350 cases respectively. Infections included tuberculosis (n=62), typhoid fever (n=15), bacterial infections not otherwise specified (NOS) (n=52), parasitic diseases including malaria (n=6), fungal infections (n=12), viral infections (n=13) and infections NOS (n=49). Malignancies included lymphoreticular malignancies, leukemias, astrocytoma, carcinoma lung, liver, pancreas, stomach, gallbladder, renal and metastatic carcinomas. The miscellaneous diseases included accidental/traumatic conditions including one case of intrauterine foetal anoxia (n=59), and systemic and metabolic diseases involving different organs/systems (n=569) with more than one disease in some cases.
Conclusion: Infections, particularly tuberculosis were a frequent cause of death in this series. The result of the study could indicate that cause of death is useful outcome indicator for disease control programmes.