Medicolegal evaluation of forensic cases of foreign nationals aged 18 and younger who applied to the emergency service of Karadeniz Technical University farabi Hospital between 2013-2022

Introduction and Objective: The number of foreign children is increasing every year due to migration to our country. In our study, we aimed to contribute to the national health system with the data prepared by determining the gender, age, forensic case history, type of injury, clinical progress after injury, demographic and epidemiological characteristics of the cases aged 18 years and younger who applied to KTU Medical Faculty Pediatric Emergency and Emergency Department between 2013 and 2022, to contribute to the national health system with the data prepared, to create a resource to be used by the relevant units and the measures that can be taken for forensic cases that develop as a result of accidents. Material and Method: The structure of the study is a cross-sectional descriptive study and was conducted by retrospectively examining forensic case patient files aged 18 years and younger who applied to KTU Medical Faculty Farabi Hospital Emergency Department and Paediatric Emergency Department between 2013 and 2022 in electronic and physical environment. Bulgular: It was observed that 51 (35.4%) of the 144 applicants to the emergency and paediatric emergency departments were Afghan nationals and 46 (31.9%) were Syrian nationals. It was observed that the most common injury was burns with 42 (29.2%) applicants, and traffic accidents ranked second with 41 (28.5%) applicants. It was observed that the most common age range of the applicants was 0-2 age range with 46 (31.9%), 99 applicants were male (68.8%) and 45 applicants were female (31.2%). In the examination of the year of the event, it was determined that the year 2022 was the year with the highest number of cases with 27 cases (18.8%) and summer was the season with the highest number of cases with 50 cases (34.7%). The most commonly affected anatomical region was the extremities with 49 cases (34%), followed by head and neck injuries and multiple trauma cases with 29 cases (20.1%). A provisional forensic report was kept in 65 (45.1%) of the applicants. 69 patients (47.9%) were discharged and 51 patients (35.4%) were hospitalised. It was determined that the most frequently hospitalised service was the burn unit with 29 cases (54.7%). There was a statistically significant difference in the place of birth, by whom, and duration of admission (p=0.022 p<0.001 p<0.001). There was a statistically significant difference in the anatomical regions injured in trauma, location, general forensic involvement status, progress, treatment and hospitalisation in the types of forensic cases (p<0,001 p<0,001 p<0,001 p=0,007 p<0,001 p=0,007 p<0,001 p=0,008 p<0,001). The anatomical regions injured in trauma were found to be head-neck, extremities in patients with traffic accidents, extremities, multiple trauma in patients with burns, non-traumatic in patients with poisoning, head-neck, extremities in patients with falls, head-neck, extremities in patients with strokes, and non-traumatic in patients with other types of trauma. Sonuç: With the increasing number of foreign nationals in our country in recent years, forensic cases involving children are an issue that should be handled from a forensic medical perspective. Preventive measures should be organised and reviewed for children, and healthcare personnel should not forget the obligation of forensic notification in forensic traumatic injuries Key Words: Forensic Case, 18 Age, Forensic Medicine.