A Prospective Study of Fracture of Hyoid Bone in Hanging Cases.

Hanging is one of the most common method of suicide in India. Whenever we get a case of hanging for medico-legal autopsy the investigating authority including judiciary expect a positive note about the fracture of hyoid bone from us. Lot of studies have been done to get the exact incidence of the fracture as the current picture varies from nil to as high as 70%. Most of the previous studies are retrospective (based on the autopsy report) in nature and all of them suggest for prospective one. Keeping above things in mind the current study has been done in a prospective manner at Government Hospital, Davangere, Karnataka, India during the period of September 2008 to February 2010. Out of 84 cases studied during the period of eighteen months only one case showed fracture of hyoid bone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]