Retrospective Study of Profile of Medico-legal Cases at Basaveshwara Medical College, Chitradurga

Abstract

Casualty department of any hospital is an important area, because most of the medical emergencies andalmost all medico legal cases report first to causality of hospital. The prime duty of doctor is to treat andsave the life of patient, however once stabilizedthe same doctor has to carry out exhaustive documentationof medico legal cases. This puts on extra burden on duty Doctor. The present study is carried out with a viewto understand the pattern and magnitude of Medico legal cases in this region. Two years retrospective datawas collectedbetween 1st January 2018 to 31st December 2019 from the casualty, Basaveshwara MedicalCollege, Chitradurga. Study revealed that Poisoning (40.04%) constituted majority of medico legal casesfollowed by road traffic accidents (31.12%) with male preponderance (3.32:1); majority of victims werebetween 21-30 years (32.5%); large number of victims were urban inhabitants (57.4%); most of the caseswere from Hindu community (90.4%); majority of cases (58.9%) reported to casualty within 1 hour fromthe time of incidence;maximum number of cases (40.50%) were reported between 6 pm - 12 am of the day;maximum number of cases was treated on the IPD basis (64.30%);more number of MLC was reported inmonth of August (48 cases).