Evaluation of injuries caused by stab wounds

Introduction: In forensic medicine practice, injuries and deaths due to stab wounds are frequently encountered. Epidemiological and demographic investigations and trauma characteristics should be demonstrated in order to reduce the injuries and deaths related to these instruments and to take the necessary precautions. Material and method: All of the cases that were reported by our department between 01.01.2012-31.12.2018 were examined retrospectively and 277 cases who applied for stab injury were included in our study. The aim of this study was to determine the age, sex, injury characteristics, MAIS, ISS scores of the cases, to investigate the forensic reports of the cases in terms of the criteria defined in the Turkish Penal Code, to compare these criteria with the international AIS, ISS trauma scoring systems and to investigate the usability of these scoring systems in forensic reports. Results: The mean age was 29.53, 47.3% (n=131) of the cases were between the ages of 18-30, 91.7% (n=254) were male. The most frequent injuries were found to be 27.1% (n=75) in summer. 49.8% (n=138) of patients were hospitalized in various departments. The most commonly injured body region was extremities with 36.6% (n=133) ratio. The most frequently injured internal organs were large intestine with 3% (n=12), small intestine 2.7% (n=11). It was determined that 36.5% (n=101) of the cases were life-threatening and 60.3% (n=167) of cases was cannot be cured by a simple medical treatment. The cut-off values were calculated to be 1.5 in the AIS system and 3.5 in the ISS system to assess the presence of life-threatening injuries. Conclusion: The need for hospitalization in half of the patients and the occurrence of life-threatening injuries in the vicinity of 40% indicates the seriousness of these injuries and indicates that legal measures should be taken. In addition, MAIS, ISS values were calculated to be low in many life-threatening cases and significant differences were found between the scales used. Therefore, it does not seem possible to standardize forensic reports of patients with penetrating injuries using the current AIS and ISS trauma scores. VIII Keyword: stab wound, abbreviated injury scale, injury severity score.