Profile of medico-legal cases registered at a tertiary care children’s hospital

Abstract

Background: The aim of this study was to analyse the patterns, social factors and the clinical outcomes of medico legal cases in Delhi.Methods: In this study, 238 medico-legal cases were studied at tertiary care centre.Results: Out of 238 cases studied, 188(79%) were males and 58 (21%) were females and a majority of these cases were from the urban slum areas (53.78%). Majority of the medico-legal cases were due to routine medical examination for fitness of abandoned children’s (26.89%) followed by poisoning (23.10%), trauma (16%), road traffic accident (8%), assault (13.33%). Most of the MLC cases were reported in casualty within 1 hour through PCR police. In this majority of the MLC cases were discharged after treatment (78.99%) and 2 children (4.72%) expired.Conclusions: This study shows the prevalence of medico-legal cases in a tertiary care hospital. Majority of the cases were males and adolescents. There is an urgent need to focus more on this vulnerable age group. Moreover, there is a need of awareness on the part of treating pediatricians about these medico legal cases and to handle the victims empathetically and at the same time follow the legal procedures diligently as per the law of the land.