Study of sexual assault cases among below 18 years age group during September 2018 to September 2020 in Government Medical College, Patiala, Punjab, India: cross-sectional study.

Introduction: there are instances commonly reported where sexual offences are committed against persons below 18 years of age, who are deemed as children. The adverse effects of child sexual abuse are psychological, physical, behavioural and interpersonal. Methods: this study was conducted in the casualty unit over a period of two years (September 2018 to September 2020), total 35 cases of sexual assault examined out of these 21 (60%) cases fall under the category where below 18 years age group is victim. Results: out of 21 cases, 19 (90.47%) were of female sexual assault and 2 (9.53%) were of male sexual assault. The age of victim ranged from 2 years to 18 years. Median age of the study population is 14 years. Interquartile range is 6 years. The most vulnerable age group was 12-18 years (71.4%). Most of the victims were Hindus (47.6%) and Sikhs (47.6%). 61.9 % cases belong to rural background. In 71.5% of cases, the act was committed by familiar persons. Maximum 28.5% cases were medico-legally examined within one day of incidence. Hymen was torn in only 5 (26.3%) cases. Conclusion: young girls are found out to be most vulnerable group. Young girls should receive special attention especially from poor settlements and lower social strata. Most important is that the general attitude of society needs to be changed in favors of the dignity of women and children. Social awareness, sensitization and protection programs should be a high priority.

Court evidence via video conferencing by doctors: Savings of time, money and energy.

Background: . Doctors are called to courts to give evidence as experts. This is time-consuming and impedes routine patient care. The court ordered the state to instal a video conferencing system for the benefit of doctors in hospitals for this purpose. We aimed to quantify the costs and benefits of the video conferencing system for doctors to give evidence as expert witness in courts. Methods: . We analysed the tele-evidence system at our institution from the societal point of view examining whether the arrangements were positive for the taxpayers and second from the point of view of a cost-break-even analysis. Results: . Over a period of 1 year, 482 tele-evidences were recorded from our site. Most of the doctors appearing for court evidence were males (84%) and the majority were in government health services (84.4%). These expert witnesses included specialists (83.8%), followed by super-specialists (10.4%) and non-specialists (5.8%). The subject experts who were called the most were radiologists (19.5%), forensic experts (18.3%), surgeons (18.0%), orthopaedic surgeons (12.4%) and neurosurgeons (6.6%). Average savings per tele-evidence were ₹2620; 181 km of travel was prevented and 4 hours and 12 minutes of time was saved. Conclusions: . Given our limited resources, video conferencing saves costs, time and travel.

A Two-Year Experience of Gender-Based Violence at a Pioneer One Stop Crisis Center: Sukoon.

This paper examines violence against women, with a special focus on domestic violence, along with sexual violence and sexual assault, in multidimensional perspective for the period of two years so as to understand its magnitude and its impact on the rights of women in the northern part of India. Among all such cases, there were 57.2% cases of domestic violence, 20.3% cases of sexual violence and sexual assault, 17.8% cases of attempted poisoning, 1.5% cases of homicidal burns, and 1.2% cases of attempted suicide. The greatest number of cases was recorded during the spring, followed by summer. It was observed that the greatest number of cases (60.24%) was recorded under the homemaker (housewife) category of women followed by the working category (26.80%). The greatest number of cases is seen in the age group of 20 to 30 years (42.77%), followed by the age group of 30 to 40 years (23.49%). A slightly higher number of cases (51.20%) was reported from rural areas. The greatest number of cases was recorded under the domestic violence category. The second highest percentage of cases reported involved sexual violence and sexual assault. The greatest number of married cases had a duration of zero to ten years (43.37%), followed by the unmarried category (19.87%). With reference to duration of violence, the greatest number of cases is seen in the age group of zero to six months (32.53%). The greatest number of cases is seen under the no child category (40.96%). Regarding the alleged perpetrator, the greatest number of cases is seen under the husband category (23.79%), followed by unknown category (22.28%).

Diagnostic Utility of Conventional Radiography in Head Injury.

BACKGROUND: Head injury is the frequent cause of morbidity and mortality and frequently encountered in emergency department. Radiological examination of the skull is an indispensable part in the management of patients suffering from head trauma. AIM: To determine the accuracy of X-ray in detecting skull fractures, comparing the same with autopsy and CT evaluation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The medico-legal cases that died of traumatic head injury and brought for autopsy over a period of two years were included in the study. Only those cases were selected who had underwent both X-ray and CT evaluation prior to death. RESULTS: When compared with autopsy, X-ray missed 19.1% of fractures while 11.9% fractures missed in contrast to CT scan. CONCLUSION: Skull X-ray is of little benefit when a CT scan is obtained. It has no added advantage over CT scan. Whenever there is facility of CT scan is available, the patient of head injury should not underwent X-ray as it can only delay the diagnosis of an associated intracranial injury and exposes the already traumatised patient to harmful radiations.