Medico-legal issues in patients of traumatic brain: Indian perspective

Abstract

TBI is a series of pathological changes that happen due to external mechanical force (s) causing temporary or permanent impairment of neurological function. From a medico-legal perspective, traumatic brain injuries present a complex questions and issues where not only simply determining who is responsible for the accident is important but also it is important to determine how a TBI affects a victim, physically, mentally, and economically. Expert medical advice is increasingly being sought in relation to criminal, insurance, personal injury and negligence issues. The relationship between evidence-based guidance and the determination of medical negligence is complex, a doctor is not guilty of negligence if he has acted in accordance with a practice accepted as proper by a responsible body skilled in that particular art in essence and it is of utmost importance whether standard practice was followed or not. The present paper focuses on the issues and difficulties faced by medical personals while imparting the care to the patients with TBI in an emergency as well as in hospital.

Keywords

Traumatic brain injury - Medico-legal issues - Medico-legal guidelines

• Reference

• 1 Hurwitz B.. How does evidence based guidance influence determinations of medical negligence?. BMJ 2004; 329: 1024-1028