PREVALENCE OF DEATHS DUE TO PENETRATING TRAUMA IN FORENSIC CASES IN KABUL – AFGHANISTAN

Abstract

Background: Trauma is damage to vital tissues that can affect a person's physical and mental health. There are various types of trauma, including mechanical trauma, traffic trauma, burn trauma, and electrical trauma. Sharp trauma is a kind of mechanical trauma created by objects with sharp edges or sharp apex, thus, the apex of the sharp object penetrates the skin, produces an injury, and the edge of the sharp object lacerates tissues and causes the expansion of the injury. This study aims to investigate the Prevalence of deaths due to sharp trauma in forensic cases at Kabul City referred to the Kabul Forensic Medicine Center from 2017 to 2019.

Methods and Material: This descriptive (cross-sectional) study was conducted on the death cases from 2017 to 2019 referred to the Kabul Forensic Medicine Center. Data were collected from the post-mortem

Service as secondary data and analyzed using IBM Statistical SPSS Version 26.

Results: This study revealed that during the years 2017 - 2019, a total of 4201 deaths were referred to the Kabul Forensic Medicine Center, 280 deaths (6.66 %) were caused by sharp trauma. Among 280 deaths, 248 cases (88.57 %) were males and 32 cases (11.42 %) were females. According to age, the majority of cases (79.64%) involved the young age group, specifically people aged 18 to 30. According to the location of the injured organ, most cases (150 cases, 53.57 %) occurred at the thorax.

Conclusion: Based on this study, the maximum number of death cases caused by sharp trauma were men and young individuals. In the majority of cases, the injured organ was the thorax.