Research Information System
13. ULUSAL TRAVMA VE ACİL CERRAHİ KONGRESİ, İstanbul, Turkey, 11 - 12 December 2021, pp.19
Evaluation of
Forensic Cases and Forensic Reports Appealing to Bezmialem Vakıf University
Emergency Department
Introduction
Forensic cases are all events caused by intent, negligence, recklessness or
carelessness that cause a person to be physically or mentally victimized (1, 2).
Firearm injuries, stab injuries, traffic accidents, falls, beatings, work
accidents, poisonings, burns, electric shocks, sexual assaults, all kinds of
suicide attempts, torture allegations, suspicious or unexpected deaths can be
considered as forensic cases. The first place where these cases are evaluated
is usually the emergency departments. Therefore, physicians working in
emergency departments have a great responsibility (3, 4). We retrospectively
evaluated the forensic reports written in the emergency department of our
hospital with this study, which we intend to do in order to write more accurate
forensic reports.
With this study, it is aimed to increase the awareness of
newly graduated medical students and emergency physicians about forensic
reports and thus to keep their knowledge about the subject up-to-date.
Methods
Our study was carried out retrospectively in Bezmialem Vakıf
University Faculty of Medicine Emergency Service after approval of the Ethics
Committee. The study was completed by examining the forensic reports written
between 01.09.2020 and 30.09.2020.
Results
The ratio of forensic cases admitted to the total number of
patients within a one-month period was approximately 2.6%. The decrease in the
number of emergency services due to COVID-19 and other restrictive measures may
have decreased the rate of forensic cases admitted (4, 5). In our study, 78.9%
(157 people) of forensic cases were men and the mean age was 34.26 ± 11.89. The
proportion of women was 21.1% and the mean age was 37.21 ± 12.54. Men are more
present in traffic than women. They work in high-risk jobs and have higher
rates of alcohol use and substance abuse. For this reason, men are more
involved in forensic cases (6). Among the forensic case reasons, 32.2% (64
people) of traffic accidents were the first. In other studies examined, traffic
accidents were in the first place as well (7). The second most common reason
for men was abuse (19 people), and poisoning for women (10 people) (Table 1).
The area with the most frequent injuries was the upper extremity with a rate of
56.3% (112 people), followed by lower extremity (33.2%- 66 people), head- neck
(23.1%- 46 people), thorax- back (22.6%- 45 people), abdomen (10.1%- 20
people), pelvis (8.5%- 17 people) and genital area (0.5%- 1 person) (Table 2). 35.2%
(70 people) of the reports were prepared due to work related accidents. 87.1%
of these cases were men. While the most common cause of work related accidents
in males was cuts (49%), it was blunt trauma in females (44%).
Only 12.1% of the reports written in the emergency department were written
as definitive reports. Temporary forensic reports were prepared for the
remaining 175 cases. One of the common problems with forensic reports is that
the physician gives a temporary report when he/she is able to give a definitive
report (5). It was seen that 50.8% of the reports mentioned if the injury was
life-threatening or not. It was stated at a rate of 60.3% whether the injury
could be relieved by a simple medical intervention or not. These ratios show
that information should be given about the reason for the preparation of the
report and its legal dimension. In forensic reports, the answers that are
generally expected from the emergency physician are whether the person is
life-threatening and whether he/she will recover with simple medical
intervention.
The deficiencies
observed in the preparation of the forensic report can be seen as a neglect of
duty for the physician. Emergency physicians should know how to write a
forensic report and what their responsibilities are in this regard. Forensic
reports must be filled in carefully, detailed and accurately.
Student: Kerem Kara 160101066
Mentor: Dr.Öğr.Üyesi Bahadır TAŞLIDERE
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