Abstract

Introduction: Background: Medicine is one of the noblest profession and the doctor plays an important role in treating the person and also at the same time has to carry out ethical and legal obligations while discharging his duties. The doctors along with treating the patients also come across medicolegal cases. Medicolegal case represents an integral part of medical practice in the emergency departments and causalities. All the doctors should have the sufficient knowledge of their roles and responsibilities while handling these cases to aid legal justice. A Medico legal case is a case of injury or illness where the attending doctor, after eliciting history and examining the patient, thinks that some investigation by law enforcement agencies is essential to establish and fix responsibility for the case in accordance with the law of the land. Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted by the department of forensic medicine at Travancore medical college, Kollam from July 2019 to Dec 2019. A total of 562 cases were included in the study. A comprehensive history taken from the police, patient and the relatives and were recorded in the predesigned proforma and analyzed. Results: The maximum 325(57.8%) were in the age group of 21-40 years followed by 124 (22.1%) from the age group <20 years. The mean age of the patients was 38.32 (SD12.86) years. The most common type of accident were road traffic accidents which was seen in 247 cases (44%) followed by drunkenness in144 cases (25.6%) followed by assault and fallin 85 cases (15.1%) and 37 cases (6.6%). Majority of the victims 435 Cases (77.4%) were discharged from the hospital after treatment while 41 cases (7.3%) of the cases had absconded or took LAMA (Leave against medical advice). Death was reported in 82 cases (14.6%).

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