Medicine
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This repository contains the published and unpublished research of the Faculty of Medicine by the staff members of the faculty
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Item A Retrospective analysis of facial injuries in victims of road traffic fatalities.(Department of Forensic Medicine, Faculty of Medicine at University of Peradeniya, 2018) Paranitharan, P.; Perera, W.N.S.; Perera, A.A.B.S.; Paranavithana, S.S.; Samanpura, L.ABSTRACT: Facial injuries play a significant role when it comes to medico-legal interpretation, category of hurt, cause of death and for compensation purposes. Road traffic accidents had been identified as a major contributor towards facial injuries. The main objectives were to identify the different facial injuries such as abrasions, contusions, lacerations and fractures, injury pattern, the distribution and to correlate the facial injuries with vulnerable road users. A pre-prepared questionnaire was used to extract information from the autopsy reports of road traffic accidents involving 59 victims covering a period from 2005 to 2014. Majority of the victims were males (79.7%) and belonging to the age group of 21-30 (22%) and 41-50 (22%). The vulnerable road users were mostly pedestrians (39%), followed by motorcycle riders (28.8%). Only few (6.8%) of the victims had teeth injuries. Most of the victims had injuries on the right forehead (44%) and right peri-orbital area (37.3%). The commonest type of facial injuries were abrasions which were 44 (grazed abrasions 30.5% and other types of abrasions 44.1%) followed by lacerations 38 (64.4%). The most common injuries on the right forehead were abrasions (20.3%) and lacerations (16.9%) while on the right peri-orbital area it was contusions (18.6 %). Majority of the victims were pedestrians and motor cycle riders. Most of the injuries were observed on the right forehead and right peri-orbital region and the commonest facial injury type was abrasions. A specific type of injury pattern was not identified to retrospectively suggest the involvement of a pedestrian or others.Item A Study into blood alcohol concentration in fatal accidents among vulnerable road users in a tertiary care hospital Sri Lanka(Informa Healthcare, 2015) Edirisinghe, P.A.S.; Kitulwatte, I.D.G.; Senarathne, U.D.Reckless driving behaviour associated with alcohol has been well known. In Sri Lanka, research on blood alcohol concentration (BAC) in roadfatalities is scares. Thus, we studied the BAC in vulnerable road users (VRUs) encountered in medico-legal autopsies. A retrospective descriptive study based on case records of VRU fatalities from 2005 to 2012 referred for a tertiary care unit for post-mortem examination was conducted. A pro-forma was developed to extract data from the post-mortem blood alcohol reports. Data were analysed using percentages and p-values. There were 119 cases from the 328 autopsies to investigate blood alcohol tests. A total of 51% (n = 61) out of 119 had BAC above 80 mg/100 ml and mean level was 103 mg/100 ml. 2/3 of pedestrians had a BAC above 80 mg/100 ml with a mean level of 139 mg/dl. The highest mean blood alcohol (158 mg/dl) was reported from three-wheeler users. Majority of cases with more than 80 mg/100 ml BAC was reported in the age group of 40-60 years, while 40% of the elderly too had a BAC above 80 mg/100 ml. The comparison between pedestrians having above 80 mg/100 ml of BAC with that of other VRUs (active road users) showed a significant statistical difference (p = 0.017). Thestudy results suggest that alcohol influence among pedestrians represent a significant risk factor for fatal road traffic accidents.Item Driving and epilepsy in Sri Lanka(Elsevier-W.B. Saunders, 1998) Seneviratne, S.L.; Gunatilake, S.B.; Adhikari, A.A.D.N.W.; de Silva, H.J.Regulations regarding driving for patients with epilepsy vary from country to country. They are well implemented in developed countries, but this is not the case in countries such as Sri Lanka. The aims of this study were to study characteristics of a cohort of patients with epilepsy who were driving or riding a vehicle at present, and study the attitudes of a representative sample of doctors, patients with epilepsy and the general population regarding aspects of driving by patients with epilepsy. Patients with epilepsy attending the medical clinics at the Colombo North General Hospital, Ragama, who were driving, were given a questionnaire and interviewed in order to assess their seizure characteristics. Another questionnaire was administered to epileptic patients visiting the clinics, a sample from the general population (relatives visiting in-patients at the University Medical Unit selected randomly), doctors working at the General Hospital in Ragama and the Base Hospital in Negombo, and general practitioners in the Gampaha district, where these two hospitals are situated, which was designed to assess their views regarding driving by persons with epilepsy. Of the patients with epilepsy interviewed 24.8% were presently driving a vehicle, of them 51% were riding a motorcycle. The attitudes of the general public and patients to driving by epileptic patients were at opposite ends of the spectrum; 97% of the general public being opposed to driving by persons with epilepsy, while epileptics themselves being of the view that the rules should be lax. Doctors thought that there should be some regulations against driving by epileptic patients. These facts must be considered when setting implementable regulations regarding driving by epileptics in developing countries.