Evaluation of forensic cases presented to the pediatric emergency department

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Child forensic cases constitute an essential part of emergency presentations. The most crucial point is that the correct planning of protective and preventive activities depends on the correct analysis of the problem; therefore, there is a need for studies on childhood forensic cases. This study aimed to obtain data on the etiological characteristics of forensic cases presented to the pediatric emergency department. We believe that the collected data will guide the social measures in preventing forensic cases.

METHODS: This retrospective study consists of forensic cases aged from 1 month to 18 years and presented to the pediatric emergency service of Adana City Training and Research Hospital between January 1, 2018, and December 31, 2019. The general forensic examination report of the cases was surveyed.

RESULTS: For this study, 6577 general forensic examination reports were surveyed. 40% of the patients were females, and 60% were males. Traffic accidents were the most common (35.1%) cause of the emergency presentation, which was followed by assault (16.5%), fall from height (9.2%), accidental drug caustic corrosive substance intake (7.8%), early pregnancy (7.4%), blunt or sharp force injuries (6.3%), electrical burn injuries (5.7%), suicide (5.1%), carbon monoxide food poisoning (2.7%), and others that consisted of work accident, firearm injury, substance ingestion, suffocation, animal attack, sudden death, and missing child (4.2%).

CONCLUSIONS: This most extensive study with 6577 cases has several important implications. First of all, traffic accidents continue to be an important public health problem today. Second, cases presented to the emergency department due to assault and blunt or sharp force injuries constitute an important part of forensic cases, and children who are driven to violence and crime in childhood are a situation that requires immediate action. Our third yet most important result is that early pregnancy is a much ignored social problem despite its importance.

How to cite this article: Arslan İ, Demir Kİ. Evaluation of forensic cases presented to the pediatric emergency department. Turk J Emerg Med 2022;22:137-42.

For the study, ethical approval was obtained from the Adana Training and Research Hospital Clinical Research Ethics Committee on December 16, 2020, with decision no: 1177.

Written informed consent was not obtained due retrospective nature of this study.

İA and KİD conducted the study concept and design, analysis and interpretation of the data, İA conducted drafting of manuscript, critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content, İA and KİD conducted the statistical analysis and acquisition of the data.

None Declared.

None.