Namık Kemal Tıp Dergisi (Jun 2024)

One Year Retrospective Review of Forensic Reports Reported in the Emergency Department

  • Sercan BIÇAKÇI,
  • Nurcan BIÇAKÇI,
  • Hüseyin ŞAHİN,
  • Naile Esra SAKA,
  • Elif ÇAMCI

DOI
https://doi.org/10.4274/nkmj.galenos.2024.72324
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 2
pp. 115 – 121

Abstract

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Aim: It was aimed to investigate the characteristics of forensic cases admitted to the emergency department of Tekirdağ Namık Kemal University Hospital (TNKUH), the qualities of forensic reports and the prognosis of the cases. Materials and Methods: All forensic cases for which a forensic report was written in the TNKUH emergency department between 01.01.2021 and 31.12.2021 were included in the study. Case records, hospital information management system and clinical patient forms and judicial notification files in the emergency department archive were examined retrospectively one by one. Results: Analyzes were made on 1136 cases for which forensic reports were prepared in the TNKUH emergency department. While 71.8% of the patients were male, the overall average age was 33.4±15.7 years. It was observed that the highest number of patients was in the 21-30 age group with a rate of 31.3%. Among the reasons for application, traffic accidents ranked first (33.3%), followed by assault-force cases (24.1%) and work accidents (21.5%). It was determined that 89.1% of the assault-algebra cases occurred with blunt traumatic-impact action. In the conclusions of the forensic reports, no life-threatening situation was mentioned in 175 cases (15.4%), it was stated that there was a life-threatening situation in 84 patients (7.4%), and that there was no life-threatening situation in 877 (77.2%) patients. It was observed that 957 patients (84.2%) were discharged from the emergency department after their examination and treatment, 112 patients were admitted to the ward (7.5%) and intensive care units (2.4%), and 8 (0.7%) patients died in the emergency department during their examination and treatment. Most of the patients admitted to clinical wards were admitted to surgical branch wards. Conclusion: A significant portion of forensic cases are caused by trauma. Having complete and orderly records in forensic cases is important in terms of physician safety and preventing patient victimization in the legal process that may occur afterwards.

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