Hyoid Bone Fractures in Mechanical Asphyxiation Deaths: A Study at Osmania General Hospital, Hyderabad, India

The fractures of the hyoid bone in the neck are one of the important indicators of any pressure over the neck. Thepresent study includes a huge sample size of mechanical asphyxiation deaths (791 cases) to study the incidence ofhyoid bone fractures in hanging, ligature strangulation, and throttling. Fractures of the hyoid bone were noticed ina total of 12 cases, 9 male and 3 female with 33.33% incidence in the 41-50 years age group. Throttling dominatedthe strangulation group in our study with a share of 42.85%. A total of 6 (5 male, 1 female) cases showed hyoidbone fractures in the strangulation group wherein the predominant incidence is seen in 41-50 years(50%). In ourstudy, right cornu fractures are frequent in hanging and throttling. Except for one outward compression fracturein a hanging instance, all of the fractures identified in our investigation are inward compression fractures. Thepresent study adds to the existing literature that hyoid bone fractures are less common in hanging than throttlingand any fracture of hyoid bone is common after the age of 40 years because of calcification.