Evaluation of Pediatric Forensic Cases Admitted to the Emergency Department in Turkey: A Retrospective Analysis

The aim of this study was to determine retrospectively the demographic characteristics of forensic cases aged 0-18 years who were admitted to the emergency department.

A total of 14,352 pediatric forensic cases aged 0-18 years, who were admitted to the emergency department of a hospital, were analyzed retrospectively in terms of the date of presentation, age, gender, and type of case.

Among the pediatric cases presenting to the emergency department, 56% were due to falling, 19% were due to burns, 8.5% were due to poisoning, 7.4% were due to animal bites, 5.3% were due to traffic accidents, 3.4% were due to battery, and 0.4% were due to other phenomena (electric shock and sexual abuse). Examination of the distribution of cases in terms of age showed that falling (16.4%), burns (25.7%), and poisoning (28%) were more frequent in boys in the age group of 15-18 months and in girls in the age group of 0-12 months. Presenting to the emergency department because of sexual abuse was observed to be more frequent in girls in the age groups of 10-14 years (40%) and 15-18 years (26.7%).

The high rates of falling, burns, and poisoning cases among children observed in this study suggest that child neglect and abuse were high and reveal the necessity of the presence of forensic nurses in the emergency departments.