Profile of pattern of medico-legal cases in the casualty of a teaching hospital of western region of Nepal

Abstract

The casualty Department of any hospital is an important area as most of the medical emergencies and almost all medico-legal cases report first to casualty of a hospital. The prime duty of a doctor is to treat and save the life of the patient, however once treatment is over then the same doctor has to carry out exhaustive documentation of medico-legal cases. This study was aimed to understand the pattern of Medico-legal cases and epidemiological factors in this region. This prospective study was carried out during the period of 1 st January 2013 to 30 th July 2014. Total 1735 medico-legal cases recorded/admitted in medico-legal register of the casualty department were included in the study which comprised of information regarding various parameters obtained from medico-legal register and hospital record of individual patient. The study revealed that RTA (50.71%) constituted majority of medico-legal cases followed by physical assault (16.81%) and poisoning (11.81%) with male preponderance. Maximum numbers of victims (26.50%) were in the age group 21-30 years followed by age group 11-20 years (19.79%).Majority of the medico-legal cases came from Kaski district 56.74%.