Resumo

VARGAS SANABRIA, Maikel  e  BONILLA MONTERO, Raúl A.. Head injury as a cause of violent death in Costa Rica in 2004. Med. leg. Costa Rica [online]. 2006, vol.23, n.1, pp.113-128. ISSN 2215-5287.

It’s a well-known fact the importance of head injury as causes of death on violent deaths around the world; however in Costa Rica there’re not current statistics about this phenomenon. In this paper we analyzed this kind of violent deaths in 2004 for to define its demographic, geographic and chronological characteristics. Also, for analyzing its medico-legal etiology and its specific lethal injury. The conclusions of this paper were: in most cases lethal injury was subject to prevention, because they were caused by traffic accidents or gunshots. The non missile injury, the head experiments a suddenly acceleration, it was the main mechanism involved in lethal injuries. Principal injuries notated as main cause of death in the final autopsy report were brain contusion and lacerations, however there were a sub diagnosis of lethal injuries like diffuse axonal damage due a technical problems. The epidemiological profile of the victims (economically active male, and city inhabitant) coincided with recent bibliography.

Palavras-chave : Head injury; causes of death; medico-legal etiology; violent death; lethal injuries; forensic epidemiology; brain contusions and laceration; traffic accidents; gunshot deaths.

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