Pattern of medico-legal cases in a tertiary care centre at sangli, maharashtra: A retrospective study

Abstract

A medico-legal case is the one where besides the medical treatment; investigations by law enforcing agencies are essential to fix the responsibility regarding the present state/condition of the patient. Medico-legal cases therefore have both medical and legal implications. Medico-legal cases are an integral part of medical practice that is frequently encountered by medical officers working in casualty. The casualty department is a backbone of every hospital because apart from medical emergencies, it also deals with the medico-legal cases. The study was conducted in a retrospective manner and all the medico-legal cases which came to the emergency department of the BVDU & MC hospital during January 2018 to December 2018 were studied. The study revealed that majority of the victims in this study population was males (70.99%) as compare to females (29.01%). Most of the victims were belonging to younger age group (21-30 years). Highest numbers of victims in the study population were Hindus (86.82%) and belonged to rural area (72.75%). Road traffic accident cases (40.22%) were highest in number among all registered medico-legal cases.