Fatalities and Morbidity in Pelvic Fractures: A Systematic Review of Clinical and Forensic Perspectives
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Abstract
Background: Pelvic fractures are among the most severe kinds of bone injuries, mostly associated with large morbidity and mortality, due to massive blood loss, associated abdominal injuries, and the complexities of the management procedure. Aside from its clinical applications, pelvic fractures have very valuable roles in the discipline of trauma studies, particularly in medico-legal analysis. Objectives: The primary objective of conducting this systematic review is to investigate the clinical results, mode of death, and morbidities associated with pelvic fractures, but with major emphasis on the forensic importance of these injuries in relation to the cause of death, survival time, among other factors. Methods: Electronic databases of PubMed, Scopus, Google searches, and Web of Science were conducted for studies that involved publications from the year 2000 until 2025. The selected types of studies had to involve clinical trials, cohort studies, autopsy series, and forensic analyses concerning mortality rates, morbidity rates, and medico-legal properties of pelvic fractures. Results: In all, 35 trials fulfilled the criteria for selection. The observed mortalities were between 10% and 35% for cases with pelvic fractures. In this case, the patients died from hemorrhage for the early deaths and septicemia or multiple organ failure for the late mortalities. The remaining patients had chronic pain, gait disturbance, and disability. The forensic aspects of pelvic fractures revealed strong association with high-energytransfer injuries such as road traffic injuries and high falls. The autopsy reports highlighted the significance of the pattern of pelvic fractures in distinguishing between accident and assault and the assessment of the severity of injuries. Conclusions: Pelvic fractures consist of a critical challenge in two aspects: a life-threatening emergency in the clinical part and an essential element in forensic reconstruction in the forensic field. Through the integration of medical expertise with forensic analysis, it would be possible to gain better patient outcomes, facilitate better medical-legal documentation, and devise better strategies for preventing trauma.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Abhishek Pandey, Brijesh Kumar Gupta, Faraz Rahat, Richa Choudhary, Pradeep Kumar Yadav, Krishna Kumar Singh
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Creative Commons License All articles published in Annals of Medicine and Medical Sciences are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Krishna Kumar Singh, Assistant Professor, Department of FMT, Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, UP, India.
Assistant Professor, Department of FMT
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