Evaluation of traumatic amputations from a forensic medicine perspective

Abstract

High-energy injuries such as traffic accidents and occupational accidents, which are commonly encountered in forensic medicine practice, may result in traumatic amputations (2,5). All such cases are considered medicolegal incidents and require official notification. This study aimed to evaluate the medical findings and medicolegal reports of amputation cases and to share regional data on traumatic amputations with the existing literature. Methods: This retrospective study evaluated traumatic amputation cases that presented to the Department of Forensic Medicine, Eskişehir Osmangazi University Faculty of Medicine, over a 10-year period between 2015 and 2024. Demographic characteristics such as age and sex, event characteristics such as mechanism and type of injury, and medicolegal report contents were analyzed. Results: A total of 157 traumatic amputation cases were evaluated. The majority of patients were male (82.2%), with a mean age of 29 ± 7.5 years. Occupational accidents were the leading cause of injury (74.5%). Finger amputations were the most common (83.4%), most frequently involving the right index finger. Replantation was possible in 16 cases (10.2%). Functional loss was identified in 25 cases (15.9%), and functional impairment in 29 cases (18.5%). Conclusions: Traumatic amputations in this study predominantly affected young male patients and were most commonly caused by occupational accidents, with finger amputations being the most frequent injury type.