FREQUENCY OF NEGATIVE AUTOPSY AND THEIR DEMOGRAPHIC EVALUATION AT KHYBER MEDICAL COLLEGE, PESHAWAR

Objective: this study was planned to see the frequency of negative autopsy against the total autopsies performed during the period. material and methods: this descriptive study was conducted at the department of forensic medicine and toxicology, khyber medical college, peshawar and was based upon autopsy data of 10 years with effect from january 1997 to december 2006. in this study fresh or minimally decomposed bodies with no external or internal injury were included. in cases where gross examinations, microscopic examination, toxicological analysis failed to detect the cause of death were labeled as negative autopsies. results: in a total of 7082 autopsies, 103 (1.45%) autopsies were found to be negative. out of these negative autopsies, 89 (86.40%) were males and 14 (13.60%) were females. the age of deceased ranged from 6-75 years with mean age of 43.81 + 16.95 years. majority i.e. 17 (16.5%) were in the age range of 31-35 years, followed by 15 (14.5%) in the age range of 51-55 years. ten (9.7%) were in the age range of 46-50 years and 21-25 years each. among these negative autopsies, 66 (64.1%) were from urban and 37 (35.9%) were from rural areas of district peshawar. conclusion: majority of negative autopsies were of young male persons from urban areas. negative autopsies need further studies to look for possible reasons like inadequate training of doctors performing the autopsy or limited resources like availability of histopathalogical or analytical services etc.