Cerebrovascular diseases, especially cerebral hemorrhage, have been thought the most frequent cause of death in Japan. The Ministry of Health and Welfare has reported that cerebrovascular diseases have been the top of the cause of death in Japan since 1951. Pathologists, however, do not have experienced so many autopsy cases who died of cerebrovascular diseases. Then, we investigated the cause of death in two leprosaria and compared it with informations from the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
One hundred and twenty seven patients died in Komyo-en Leprosarium between 1962, January, and 1971, June. Autopsy was done on 110 cases. The average age was 62.5 years old. Malignant neoplasms (33 cases) were more frequent than cerebrovascular diseases (hemorrhage: 9 cases, softening: 3, microscopic hemorrhage: 11). The major direct cause of death was bronchopneumonia. Investigation of the death certificates in Seisho-en Leprosarium for the years 1967-1976 also revealed that cerebrovascular diseases were not the major cause of death. These results are different from informations of the cause of death in Japan published by the Ministry of Health and Welfare. This discrepancy probably comes from inaccurate description of the death certificates and low autopsy rate in this country.
