Background and purpose: Physical assault (PA) is a common cause of mortality and morbidity throughout the world and the prevalence is still very high in underdeveloped and developing countries. With the objective to see the spectrum of injury following PA from the medico legal point of view, this study was design in a tertiary care centre at far eastern part of Nepal. Material and method: This is a prospective analytical study with non- probability consecutive sampling of physical assault cases presented in the emergency department over the duration of 4 months. All the patients who meet the inclusion criteria were collected in preformed proforma. Gender, types of weapons used for PA, location of external and internal injuries, various treatment strategies, and severity of injuries were presented in frequencies and percentage. Association of different age categories, gender and types of weapons used with severity of injuries were analysed using Chi square/ Fisher’s exact test wherever applicable. Result: There were total 99 patients presented with physical assault during the study period with mean age of presentation 31.69 (SD 13.38) Years with male (70%) predominance. Among various types of weapons used for PA; punches/ kicks were used in 50% of assaults followed by blunt heavy objects (35%) and sharp heavy weapons (14%). Location of the external injuries were more common in head and neck area . Obvious internal injuries were seen in 14% of the assaulted patients. Among all the case of PA, 42% patients needed some sort of surgical intervention during hospital stay. There were 9% cases of grievous injury and 6% had life threatening injuries. Conclusion: Physical assault is a common mode of injuries in eastern Nepal, where young males are more prone to such injuries. Violence are commonly carried out using fists, kicks and blunt objects. Severity of injuries is similar with all the types of weapons used.

No abstract

Background: Estimation of stature is an integral part of forensic anthropology and identification process in dead bodies. Mutilated and skeletonized body parts, which are generally received during disasters and mass casualties, carries significant burden of identification for a forensic expert. This study is aimed at estimating stature from percutaneous tibial length. Material and Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted from February 2020 to February 2021 in Nobel Medical College Teaching Hospital. 350 Nepalese medical students, 183 males and167 females, who were between 18 – 30 years, were included in the study. Their height and percutaneous tibial length was measured. Simple regression analysis was done using SPSS software version 20 to obtain a correlation between two parameters. Results: The results showed a significant correlation between the stature and percutaneous tibial length in both sexes. The regression formulae derived for calculation of stature was 104.80 + 1.81 * percutaneous tibial length(cm) for male and 93.58 + 1.91 * percutaneous tibial length(cm) for female. All the measurements were higher in males than in females. Conclusion: The study revealed a significant correlation between stature and percutaneous tibial length for both sexes in Nepalese population. Hence stature can be estimated from tibial length in both sexes which can aid in identification process and anthropological studies in Nepal.

Background: Determination of sex is an important parameter other than age, race and stature during forensic identification and crime scene investigation. Females tend to have finer and denser ridges on their fingertips than males. Present study aims at differentiating gender from fingerprint ridge density. Material and Methods: This is a cross sectional study conducted from March 2022 to March 2023 in Nobel Medical College Teaching Hospital, Nepal. Seven hundred fingerprints samples (350 males and 350 females), from 70 Nepalese medical students were collected and analyzed for gender differences. Comparative analysis was done using Student’s t-test (p<0.05). Likelihood ratio and posterior probability using Baye’s theorem were calculated to interpret the possibility of gender differentiation from various fingerprint ridge densities. Results: Students t-test revealed significant difference (p < 0.001) between the fingerprint ridge density of male and female (t= -16.733). The results showed ridge density <14/25mm2and >15/25mm2 are “more likely than not” from males and females respectively. Posterior probability using Baye’s theorem further revealed ridge density <13/25mm2 (C/C1=5.75,P=0.86) and >16/25mm2 (C1/C=4.29, P1=0.84) have higher probability of originating from males and females respectively. No any male and female had ridge density >16/25mm2 and <13/25mm2 respectively. Conclusion: The study revealsstatistically significantlygreater fingerprint ridge densities in female than in male Nepalese medical students.

Homicidal decapitation is extremely uncommon. We report a rare case of a 41-year female, from Lalitpur, Kathmandu, Nepal, who was decapitated by her husband in their bedroom with the use of a ''Khurpa'' a sharp local knife.