[A comparative analysis of types, causes and circumstances of deaths based on autopsy reports from the periods of 1945-50 and 1990-1993].

The authors presented a comparative analysis of types of deaths, their causes and circumstances based on autopsy reports of postmortem examinations performed in the Department of Forensic Medicine in Lódź in the years 1945-1950 (1210 reports), and in the period 1990-1993 (1393 reports). In both the analyzed time frames, the most common type of death was violent deaths (59,88% and 78,39%, respectively). Gunshot wounds were a far more common cause of death in 1945-50 as compared to 1990-93 (16,99% and 0,92% of all violent deaths, respectively). In the years 1990-1993, the incidence rate of blunt injures was much higher than in the previous period (38,12% and 51,37% of all violent deaths, respectively), similarly as ethanol poisonings (4,42% and 10,44% of all violent deaths, respectively). In almost one half of instances, the available archival records for the years 1945-50 did not allow for determining the circumstances of deaths (42,82% of all violent deaths); in the years 1990-1993, the majority of deaths occurred in consequence of accidents (60,26% of all violent deaths). Contrary to expectations, the ratio between road traffic-related and other accidents increased only slightly in the years 1990-1993 as compared to the period of 1945-1950 (traffic accidents: 61,09% and other accidents: 38,91% of all accidents in the first period, vs. traffic accidents: 57,62% and other accidents: 42,38% of all accidents in the second period).