Conference Papers
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This collection contains abstracts of conference papers, presented at local and international conferences by the staff of the Faculty of Medicine
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Item Autopsy review on ‘suspicious deaths' of Sri Lankans who died abroad: a study from Colombo North Teaching Hospital (CNTH)(Sri Lanka Medical Association, 2008) Perera, W.N.S.; Edirisinghe, P.A.S.; Kitulwatte, I.D.G.BACKGROUND: Many Sri Lankans have left as migrant workers for the past three decades. When such a person dies in the host country and the family is in doubt about the death, investigations are initiated in Sri Lanka including an autopsy. OBJECTIVE: To study the epidemiological details of the deceased persons, the difference of the cause and the circumstance of death after being subjected to an autopsy in Sri Lanka. DESIGN, SETTING AND METHODS: A retrospective descriptive analysis was carried out on suspicious deaths that occurred in other countries based on autopsy reports, and the case notes attached to them (including certificates of deaths and autopsy reports sent by host countries) at the Medico-Legal Unit of CNTH from January 2003 to March 2007. RESULTS: Out of 52 deaths examined, 69% died in the Middle East, whereas 17% and 10% died in Asia and Europe. 50% and 44% were skilled and unskilled workers respectively. The mean time interval of receiving a body was 3 weeks from the date of death. Analysis of documents revealed that only 51% deaths had a cause of death (COD) and 18%, 12%, 8% of deaths were suicides, accidents and homicides respectively. 69% of cases revealed a COD after autopsy in Sri Lanka. Majority were related to trauma (40%). Comparison of autopsy reports revealed that our injury detection was much better (p=0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Since many deaths abroad are trauma related, an autopsy examination should be made mandatory in Sri Lanka to resolve problems of insurance and compensation of these migrant workers.Item A comparative study of the causes of death given in two forensic institutions (Ragama and Edinburgh) and North Colombo Teaching Hospital: lessons we can learn from others(Sri Lanka Medical Association, 2007) Edirisinghe, P.A.S.; Perera, B.P.P.; Kitulwatte, I.D.G.INTRODUCTION: Writing the cause of death (COD) according to the WHO format using the International Classification of Diseases has been the accepted practice in order to create comparable national and international statistics. Objective: To analyse whether the forensic doctors and clinicians in the North Colombo Teaching Hospital (NCTH) and the doctors in the Section of Forensic Medicine, University of Edinburgh adhered to WHO proforma and ICD 10 when formulating COD. And to suggest changes if a need was shown by this study. DESIGN, SETTING AND METHODS: CODs written during a six month period in 2003/2004 were obtained from postmortem reports and counterfoils of declaration of death forms from forensic doctors and clinicians respectively. CODs from the Certificates of COD written by forensic doctors in Edinburgh were obtained during a six months period in 2004/2005. RESULTS: 21% of Edinburgh records (n=252) were found to have one or more errors in the COD, whereas CODs written by forensic doctors in NCTH (n=441) had 45% of errors. The main difference between Edinburgh and NCTH was the use of linking words to imply WHO pro-forma by NCTH forensic doctors. Although the clinicians of NCTH use the format of la, Ib, Ic and 2, 79 %( n=432) of CODs had errors. CONCLUSIONS: High error rate of the Sri Lankan sample was due to many reasons. Medical certification of COD according to WHO pro-forma not being a statutory duty, and the COD given by junior doctors without supervision were major reasons.