Profile of Medico-Legal Cases Coming to Casualty of Government Medical College and Associated Hospital Ratlam (M.P.)

Abstract

Background: The casualty department of a hospital deals with medical emergencies which comprise of saving lives and at the same time thorough documentation in all medico-legal cases. The aim of this study to assess the profiling of medico-legal cases reporting to the casualty department of District Hospital Ratlam. Materials & Methods: The present study is an observational retrospective study, conducted to know the distribution of various medico-legal cases arriving in the district hospital of Ratlam (M.P.) according to various parameters. All cases (Medico-Legal) that came to the hospital from 1 July 2018 to 30 June 2019 were taken in the study. Results: Total cases were 2624 in which male 1711(69.5%) outnumbered females 753(30.5%). The maximum number of cases were physical assault 1025(41.5%) followed by RTA 607(24.6%) and poisoning 159(6.4%). The maximum number of cases 964(39.1%) were of age group 21-30 years followed by 535(21.7%) cases of age group 31-40 years. Conclusion: Casualty or emergency department of a medical college receives all type of emergency cases including medico legal cases. The sensitive or important things of medico-legal work should be carried out under the supervision of senior medical officer as part of their training in the field, so as to avoid imprecision their training in the in giving the opinion.