Frequency of fracture of hyoid bone in various modalities of strangulation of neck (hanging,garroting and throttling) in tertiary care facility

Aim: to determine the frequency of fracture of hyoid bone in various modalities of strangulation of neck (hanging,garroting and throttling) in tertiary care facility. study design: cross-sectional study. setting: department of forensic medicine,multan medical &dental college,multan. duration of study: for a period of 10 months from february 2015 to december 2015. methodology: a total of 135 cases were included in this study. the standardized autopsy procedure was done on every dead body. after observing all the related findings to hanging,ligature strangulation or throttling,the hyoid bone was dissected out for the detection of fracture. results: mean age of the cases was 25.5±15.9 years. out of 135 cases,79 (58.5%) were male and 56 (41.5%) were female. modalities of strangulation of neck as follows: 109 cases (80.7%) of hanging,14 cases (10.3%) of garroting and 12 cases (9.0%) of throttling. hyoid bone fracture found in 16 cases. out of these 16 cases,10.4% fractures were in single piece while 1.5% fractures were in multiple pieces. conclusion: the fracture of hyoid bone is rare. this suggests that the fracture of neck structures may be present in hanging cases and it is not essentially a feature of hanging.