مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - Assessment of forensic reports prepared by the department of forensic medicine of gulhane military medical academy between 2006-2011

Abstract :

Besides providing preventative and curative healthcare services, physicians have responsibility to prepare forensic reports. As they hold a crucial place for victims and suspects in the course of adjudication, these reports must be prepared in line with certain standards. This study aims to present and discuss the epidemiological characteristics of the reports prepared by the Department of Forensic Medicine of Gulhane Military Medical Academy (GMMA).In this cross-sectional study, reports prepared by the Department of Forensic Medicine of GMMA between 01.01.2006 -12.31.2011 were examined retrospectively. Statistical analysis was performed on epidemiological characteristics of the cases, dates that the events took place, injury sites and data obtained according to injury qualifcations defned in clauses 86 and 87 of the Turkish Penal Code (TPC).The number of forensic reports prepared by Department of Forensic Medicine of GMMA between January 2006 and December 2011 was 2238. Average age of the cases was 24.7±6.8 years (min=3, max=70) and 97.6% (n=2185) of them were male. 82.5% (n=1848) of the cases was the group of 20-29 years.According to the type of the event, injuries in 50% of the cases were because of battery. Other frequent reasons were frearm injuries (14.7%; n=330), traffc accidents (12.3%; n=275) and explosive injuries (9.1%; n=204).According to the part of the body, in 1242 cases (55.5%), the most common sites of injury were head and neck. Skeletal system fractures were detected in 887 cases, and fractures were found to be most frequent in the head and neck site (in 287 cases; 12.8%). According to clauses 86 and 87 of TPC, 55.8% (n=1248) were not mild, that were requiring more than a simple medical intervention, and 19.8% (443) were life threatening. In 19% (n=425) of the cases, persistent functional weakness or loss of function in one of the organs was observed.