A Study of Pattern of Crush Injury in Medico-Legal Autopsy

Crush injury is a type of mechanical injury. A crush injury occurs when a body part is subjected to a high degree of force or pressure, usually after being squeezed between two heavy objects. Crush injuries are rarely encountered in everyday trauma care but become an important injury in disaster situations. These injuries are commonly found in victims of collapsed structures, which may result from earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, bombings, and other large scale events. It is also seen in road traffic accidents, railway tract incidents, and in industrial accidents.

This present study is a retrospective study undertaken at the mortuary of Forensic Medicine, Gauhati Medical College and Hospital. The study includes all the crush injury cases coming to the mortuary for autopsy during the year 2011. The main objective is to study the pattern of the crush injury cases in respect of different epidemiological data, to find the causes of death in different crush injury cases, the sex ratio and the causes of such injury.