Time Changes the Colour of Bruises

Old injuries are always claimed to be caused during the alleged crime by the victims in Criminal cases, where it becomes a very big challenge to the Medical Officer who receives the request for an Wound Certificate. Often times the age of injury has led the doctor and Police Officer in arriving at the correct time of crime. But at the same times many cases could not reach a logical end since the benefit of doubt goes to the accused in such cases, and they are left scot-free. There has been very little research in the last decade on the age of contusions based on colour and histopathological changes apart from what is given in the standard text books. Hence this study has been taken up to verify the validity of the relation between the colour changes and age of a Contusion.

A study was done by choosing cases which were brought by the Police for treatment and issue of Wound certificate to causality of Gandhi Hospital, Secunderabad, Telangana State. A total of 122 cases were selected and followed up by checking the colour of Contusions and noting the same by a series of photographs. Injuries spanning from 6 hours through 21 days according to the allegation in the FIR were taken up for this study. It was found that the development of a yellow colour was the most significant change (subjects aged < 65, P < 0.001; subjects aged >65 years, P < 0.001). The development of a yellow colour occurred significantly faster in subjects aged ∼65 years. (P < 0.001). The appearance of a blue and purple/black colour was of lesser significance. The appearance of a red colour did not alter significantly with time. From this study it was only possible to conclude that a bruise with a yellow colour was more than 18 h old.