Revisits of forensic cases to the emergency department

Abstract

Objective: The data of forensic cases who revisited to the emergency department (ED) more than once, remain uncertain. In this study, it was aimed that to determine characteristics of these cases and to investigate factors associated with forensic revisits.

Methods: All forensic cases who presented to emergency department of a secondary care hospital in Turkey were evaluated between July 2017 and June 2018, retrospectively. During a year study period, 7580 visits were performed by 5870 forensic cases in the ED. Characteristics of cases which were gender, age, injury patterns, number of revisits, outcomes, and total cost were noted. Factors associated with forensic revisits were identified by multivariate logistic regression analysis.

Results: During a year study period, 985 forensic cases had multiple ED visits (a total of 2692). Median revisit number was 2 (IQR 2-3). In logistic regression analysis, male gender (Odds ratio [OR], 1.76; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.47-2.10), physical assault (OR, 2.70; 95% CI: 1.40-5.20), and fall (OR, 0.21; 95% CI: 0.07-0.64) were associated with forensic revisits. Revisited group had lower hospitalization rate and hospital cost than those of non-revisited group (2.6% and 7.4%; 15.5 TL (interquartile range [IQR] 15.5-15.5) and 15.5 TL (IQR 15.5-107.8), respectively) (χ2; P < .001).

Conclusion: One-sixth of all forensic cases revisited to the ED multiple times. Physical assault and male gender were the most important factors associated with forensic revisits in this study. Further, these revisits were often composed of simple reasons requiring less hospitalization and less cost.

Keywords: Demographics; Emergency medicine; Forensic medicine.