DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2015.v03i01.021

Pages: 92-97

Studies pertaining to the magnitude and pattern of assault related injuries in Northern India are few. The aim of this study is to assess the epidemiology and details of injuries sustained by assault victims. A prospective study of 284 assault victims attending the casualty of Sir Sunderlal, BHU, Varanasi, India over a period of four months was undertaken. All assault victims were examined and interviewed in detail by casualty medical officers and data collected was entered in SPSS version 11.0 for statistical analysis. Out of 9600 new patients who attended casualty over four months study period, 284 (2.96%) had been assaulted. The mean age of the victims were between 17 – 70 years with male to female ratio being 3:2.1 (P=0.004). Majority of the assault victims were unmarried (72.54%) and unemployed (57.04%). Alcohol abuse was reported in 37.68% cases. 60.16% cases had been reported to the police. Majority of the victims (72.53%) were assaulted away from their residence. In 26.38% cases assailants were unidentified. The commonest mode of assault was physical assault (66.20%) while 9.15% had assault by firearms. Blunt and sharp weapons were used in 34.51% and 20.77% cases, respectively. The most common cause of assault was old familial conflict (27.46%) followed by property related conflict (21.14%) and election or politics related (16.90%). The head and neck region was the commonest site (52.95%) of injury followed by upper limb (17.01%), thorax (12.82%) and lower limb (10.45%) while the abdomen was least affected (6.75%). Out of 593 injuries noted, commonest were bruises/haematoma (43.51%), abrasions/lacerations (28.16%) and fractures (21.75%). In 23.24% cases hospitalization was required while rest were treated on OPD basis.