Missed injuries in explosion-related deaths. Issue 5 (2nd September 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Demirkiran, D. Sumeyra; Çelikel, Adnan; Oruc, Cem; Demirkiran, Gokhan; Zeren, Cem; Arslan, M. Mustafa
• Is Part Of: Australian journal of forensic sciences. Volume 48:Issue 5(2016)
• Page Start: 564
• Page End: 570
• Publication Date: 2016-09-02
• Subjects: missed diagnoses -- explosion injuries -- autopsy; Law -- Australia -- Periodicals; Forensic sciences -- Periodicals; Forensic Medicine -- Periodicals; 363.2505
• DOI: 10.1080/00450618.2015.1112427
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0045-0618

Abstract

Abstract : In this study we aim to compare clinical diagnoses and post-mortem diagnoses of explosion-related deaths and identify the unrevealed diagnoses missed by physicians. Forensic autopsy reports of three years between January 2012 and December 2014 were collected retrospectively and 277 explosion-related deaths are included in the study. Out of 277 cases, 245 (88.4%) of them are male and 32 (11.6%) of them are female. The mean age is 27.8 years. The mean injury severity score is 37.8 ± 14.54.90 and 32.5% of the cases died in the first 24 h after getting injured. The most frequent injury is head injury (39.0%) and the second most frequent is injuries to multiple body regions (27.8%). Of eight cases of lower extremity injuries, six were found to have injuries of large vessels in post-mortem examinations. Our conclusion is that injury severity scores in cases of explosion-related injuries are higher than those in cases of general trauma. The frequency of missed diagnoses is higher in cases of vessel injuries and multiple injuries. It can be thought that small but lethal lesions can be overlooked when a major trauma is dealt with. In addition, injuries of the internal organs due to blast effects without any macroscopic examination findings can be misleading for physicians.