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 agenciesare essential to fix the responsibility regarding the present state/condition of the patient. Medico-legal casestherefore have both medical and legal implications. Medico-legal cases are an integral part of medicalpractice that is frequently encountered by medical officers working in casualty. The casualty department isa backbone of every hospital because apart from medical emergencies, it also deals with the medico-legalcases. The study was conducted in a retrospective manner and all the medico-legal cases which came to theemergency 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 tofemales (29.01%). Most of the victims were belonging to younger age group (21-30 years). Highest numbersof victims in the study population were Hindus (86.82%) and belonged to rural area (72.75%). Road trafficaccident cases (40.22%) were highest in number among all registered medico-legal cases.