Evaluation of Pediatric Forensic Cases in Emergency Department: A Retrospective Study

Aim: Our aim was to evaluate the properties of pediatric forensic cases and to discuss the precautions in order to prevent the occurrence of these forensic events. Methods: The patient files and forensic reports of pediatric (age 0-18 years) forensic cases, who were referred to the emergency department in our hospital between January 01, 2009 and December 31, 2011 were retrospectively investigated. Results: A total of 421 forensic pediatric cases with a median age of 9.9 +/- 5.5 years were included in the study. Off the cases, 61% (n=257) were male and 47.3% were in 5-14 age group. The type of the events were traffic accident (50.4%), fall (18.3%), stab injuries (10.9%), intoxication (5.9%), pounding (5.0%) and other incidents (9.5%). There were nine cases of suicide attempt (all of them were above 14 years of age) and four cases of physical abuse (three of them were under 15 years of age). After the observation period, 79.8% of the cases were discharged from the emergency department, whilst 20.2% of cases were hospitalized in one of the clinics. Conclusion: Because most of the cases were traffic accident, this situation show us that these injuries are preventable. Prevention and intervention strategies should be developed for providing a safe environment for children.