Factors associated with challenges in skin wound length and depth prediction of physicians in forensic cases

Abstract

Aim: We aimed to display factors associated with error rates in identifying skin lesions with subjective methods and determine potential effectiveness of objective and metric measurements on judicial processes which may result in unwanted social and legal outcomes and raise the awareness of physicians. Material and Method: We made an incision on a piece of sponge with a lencet in order to model a skin lesion. The length and depth of the lesion was measured by compass device. Then, a face to face interview was planned with the physicians working in the hospital and they were asked to estimate the length and depth of the lesion. Estimations of the physicians were recorded. Results: Total of 146 physicians were involved into the study. Of these, 41.8% (n=61) were female and 58.2% (n=85) were male. Mean age of the physicians was 33.46±7.94 (24-61) years. Of the physicians, 7.5% (n=11) were a member of basic medical sciences, 26% (n=38) were a member of surgical medical sciences and 21.9% (n=32) were practitioner physician. When titles of the physicians were investigated, it was found that 21.9% (n=32) were practitioners, 34.9% (n=51) were residents, 34.9% (n=51) were specialists, 8.2% (n=12) were lecturers. The rate of the participants who estimated the incision more than 8 cm was higher than those who estimated less than 8 cm. Standart deviation of the depth estimation was 1.35 cm. Thirty-nine (26.7%) participants made an exact estimation of the depth of the incision. Conclusion: The measurement accuracy without a device is not associated with experience and errors of both inexperienced physicians and experienced physicians of any grade do similar mistakes during judicial report preparation process. These high error levels reveal that use of devices may avoid errors of physicians at any grade and protect physicians from possible judicial challenges.