1st Term
Forensic Medicine Viva Card Questions
This PDF is the result of the efforts of Krishnava, who put his blood and sweat into collecting these questions from card photos and arranging them
carefully, according to chapter, created with care and dedication. It is shared with the hope that it will be useful to anyone who seeks guidance, knowledge,
or support. May it serve as a small contribution to your learning journey.
Introduction
● Why should a doctor have fair knowledge about forensic medicine?
● Define clinical forensic medicine
● Define medical jurisprudence.
● What is Forensic Thanatology?
● Define Forensic Medicine
● Define Forensic Pathology
● Mention the differences between
Forensic Medicine & Medical Jurisprudence?
1
Legal Procedure
● Define crime and criminals,
● define evidence and classify it.
● Define Professional Infamous Conduct
● What is a Challan
● What are the conditions under which an authorised Medical officer
can refuse to hold a post-mortem examination?
● Define Cognizable and non-cognizable offences.
● Define Hurt
● What is conduct money
● Define Inquest
● What is an Inquest Report
● The Dead Body of a prisoner was found in the jail.
○ Who will prepare the inquest report?
○ What are the other indications of such a report?
● A doctor, as a witness, received a summons from the District Judge's
Court. After three days, he received another summons from the
Additional Sessions Judge Court. The dates of both cases are on the
same day. How will the doctor decide which court to attend as a
witness? If he fails to attend, what will be the consequence?
● What is deposition?
● What is a dying deposition?
● Define witness.
● What are the conditions under which a magistrate’s inquest is
required?
● Define warrant.
● Define hostile witness.
2
● What are the sentences authorised by the law of Bangladesh?
● Define court.
● What do you mean by bedside court?
● What do you mean by expert witness?
● What are the parts of a deposition?
● Define and classify an offence.
● Define summon.
● Location and powers of the Sessions Judge Court.
BMDC
● What do you mean by penal erasure?
● What do you mean by BMDC and BMA?
● What are the functions of BMDC?
● What are the rights and privileges of a registered medical
practitioner?
3
Ethics
● What do you mean by consent?
● During the operation on the right eye, the doctor mistakenly operated
and removed the healthy left eye:
i) Explain what type of offence it is.
ii) What precautions may you take to avoid such an offence?
● Define medical ethics and etiquette.
● A person went to Cox’s Bazar for a vacation and stayed there for three
days without informing his authority. Before rejoining, he went to a
physician who issued a fake sickness certificate for him. How will you
justify this according to medical ethics? Who will punish the doctor,
and what punishments may be imposed?
● What do you mean by res ipsa loquitor?
● Mention five examples of criminal malpractice.
● A man sued a doctor for the death of his wife, who died during an
operation in the hospital. What might be the allegation against the
doctor? What precautions should be taken to avoid such a situation?
● What do you mean by fee sharing and fee splitting?
● Define privileged communication.
● Define professional infamous conduct. Give examples.
● Define professional secrecy.
● Define euthanasia.
● When does consent become valid and invalid?
● What do you mean by informed written consent?
● Define malpractice.
4
Wound
● What are the medicolegal importances of abrasion in different parts
of the body?
● Define wound.
● How can you differentiate between a wound and hypostasis?
● Define bruise.
● What are the characteristics of an incised wound? What are the
criteria for an incised wound?
● Define an incised-looking wound.
● Define hurt and injury.
● What is the difference between an incised and an incised-looking
wound?
● Define abrasion.
● A man was beaten up badly by four miscreants during a snatching
incident involving cash, a mobile phone, and other valuables. He went
to the hospital emergency department, and the following injuries
were found:
i) Abrasions over knees and thighs.
ii) Bruises on the front and back of the arms, trunk, thighs, and legs.
iii) On X-ray, right tibia-fibula fractures were found.
Classify each type of hurt sustained by the man. What are the things
you have to mention in his injury report?
● Define an incised wound.
● How can the age of a bruise be determined by its colour changes?
● Define wound medicolegally.
● Enumerate the contents of grievous hurt.
● Define and classify a punctured wound.
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● Define laceration.
● What do you mean by ectopic bruise?
● Define and classify hurt.
● What is a battery?
● What is the difference between antemortem and postmortem
wounds?
6
Legal Aspect of Wound
● What are the processes of wound healing?
● Define and classify homicide.
● At the time of slicing fruits, a girl accidentally had an incised wound
on her finger from a sharp kitchen knife. How will the wound heal?
Mention the maximum duration of the healing.
7
Firearms and Explosive Wounds
● What is a bomb?
● A person was murdered by gunshot, and two people were arrested as
suspects. Identification of the murderer and the murder weapon is
needed. Name and define the concerned branch of forensic medicine.
How can the accused be identified by examining the hand?
● What is primer, and what is its composition?
● A person was shot to death. On autopsy, two gunshot wounds were
found — one on the front and another on the back of the chest. How
will you differentiate the entrance and exit wounds?
If both wounds are identified as exit wounds, interpret the condition.
● What do you mean by bullet and pellet?
● Define choking.
● Classify gunpowder. Which type of gunpowder is important and why?
● What are the differences between entry and exit wounds of a rifled
firearm injury?
● What do you mean by “Kennedy phenomenon”?
● Define dust shot and buckshot.
● A person was found dead with only an entrance wound, but no bullet
was found in the body. What is your opinion? What are the causes of
death?
● A person was brought to the morgue. During autopsy, it was found
that there is only one entrance wound but multiple exit wounds —
what is your opinion? What are the possible causes of death?
● A person was found dead, and during the autopsy, it was found that
there was only an entrance wound but no bullet in the body. What is
your opinion? What are the causes of death?
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● What do you mean by a ricochet bullet and a tandem bullet?
● Define firearm.
● A dead body with a gunshot wound was brought to the morgue, and
during autopsy, a single entry wound was found on the abdomen, but
there were three different exit wounds present on the body.
i) What might be the causes of this?
ii) How can you identify the firearm?
● What are the medicolegal importances of choking?
● What is rifling?
● What are the injuries caused by a bomb blast?
9
EFFECTS OF HEAT AND COLD
● Causes of death due to burns.
● What do you mean by burn and scald? What are the differences
between them?
● Define heat stroke.
● How will you estimate the percentage of burns?
● A patient came to the burn unit of DMCH with burns on the head,
neck, and face, both upper extremities, and the anterior part of the
trunk. Estimate the percentage of burns. How will you provide fluid
management for him?
● What do you mean by pugilistic attitude? Describe its characteristics.
● What are the features of a heat hematoma?
● What are the differences between antemortem and postmortem
burns?
● A 36-year-old female was brought to the hospital burn unit. On
examination, she had burn injuries on both hands, the front of the
chest, and the upper part of the abdomen while cooking. Her body
weight was 73 kg, and she was dehydrated.
i) How can you estimate the severity of the burns?
ii) What complications may arise in this case?
● What are the differences between antemortem blisters and
postmortem blisters?
● What is frostbite and trench foot?
● Define scald and state the causes of scald.
● What is heat stroke?
10
Regional Injuries
● What do you mean by coup injury and contrecoup injury?
● Define head injury.
● Enumerate the different fractures of the skull bone.
● What are the causes of intracranial haemorrhage?
● What are the injuries to the brain?
Transportation Injuries
● What do you mean by “Whiplash Injury”? Give an example to prove
your statement further.
● Seat-Belt Injuries.
● What are the injuries to the Driver and the passenger in case of RTA?
11
Electricution and Lightning
● Define electrocution and Joule burn.
● What precautionary steps should be taken to avoid lightning?
● What are the mechanisms of death due to electrocution?
● What are the features of electrocution?
● What do you mean by AC and DC current?
● What are the causes of death due to lightning?
● What are the sources of electrocution?
● Which type of current is more dangerous and why?
Starvation
● Cardinal postmortem findings in cases of death due to starvation.
● What are the fatal periods of starvation?
● Define and classify starvation.
● How can you differentiate starvation from cholera?
● What are Stevenson’s criteria for starvation?
12
Death and Post-Mortem Findings
● What do you mean by postmortem clock?
● Define putrefaction and mention its stages.
● Define and classify death.
● Define mummification.
● What are the factors affecting postmortem cooling?
● Define hypostasis.
● During the autopsy of a dead body, stiffness was found only in the
knee joints, while the rest of the body was relaxed. How will you
estimate the time since death? What are the other postmortem
changes by which the postmortem interval can be estimated?
● What are somatic death and molecular death?
● What is rigor mortis?
● Define death trance.
● What are the diagnostic criteria of brain death?
● Define brain death.
● What is postmortem hypostasis?
● What are the differential diagnoses of stiffness in a dead body?
● What are the stages of putrefaction?
● What are the early changes after death?
● What is mummification?
● What are the conditions under which a death trance may occur?
● Define postmortem caloricity.
● During the autopsy of a dead body, stiffness was found only in the
elbow joints, while the rest of the body was relaxed. How will you
estimate the time since death? What are the other postmortem
changes by which the postmortem interval can be estimated?
13
● What do you mean by cadaveric spasm?
● During the autopsy of a dead body, stiffness was found only in the
knee joints, while the rest of the body was relaxed. How will you
estimate the time since death? What are the other postmortem
changes by which the postmortem interval can be estimated?
● What do you mean by postmortem purging?
● What are the mechanisms of rigor mortis?
14
Violent Asphyxial Death
● Pathophysiology of freshwater drowning.
● Define traumatic asphyxia.
● A 35-year-old man was having food in a restaurant with his friends,
suddenly turned blue with a violent cough and died within a few
minutes. What is your probable diagnosis? What findings may you
observe during an autopsy?
● Define hanging.
● What do you mean by sexual asphyxia?
● What are the differences between antemortem hanging and
postmortem hanging?
● A dead body was recovered from the Buriganga River and brought to
the DMCH mortuary. On autopsy, signs of asphyxia were found, but
the lungs were non-edematous. What can be the probable cause of
death? What other findings will help you ascertain the case?
● Define diatom.
● A body was recovered from the river and sent to the morgue for
autopsy. During the autopsy, mud and sand were found on the body
and clenched in the hands, but no water was found in the lungs or
stomach.
i) What is your probable diagnosis and points in favour of your
diagnosis?
ii) What might be the cause of death?
● Define adipocere formation. What are the characteristic features of
adipocere formation?
● What are the mechanisms of froth production in cases of drowning?
● Define throttling.
15
● What are the causes of obliteration of ligature marks in cases of
hanging?
● Define strangulation.
● A 22-year-old female was found dead in her bedroom with a messy
bed sheet and pillows. On examination, signs of asphyxia and
multiple circular bruises with crescentic abrasions were found on each
side of the frontal aspect of the neck. What is the probable cause of
death? What are the internal findings you may observe in the neck?
● A 17-year-old male was found dead in his own room, locked from the
inside. He was in a sitting position, suspended from the ceiling,
undressed, with a ligature around the neck. What is your diagnosis
and manner of death? What other factors are associated with it,
including circumstantial findings?
● What are the causes of death due to hanging?
● During postmortem examination of a person, a ligature mark on the
neck and signs of asphyxia were found. How will you identify the case
as hanging by the ligature mark? What findings may you observe in
the face?
● What are the cardinal signs of antemortem drowning?
● Define asphyxia. What are the signs of asphyxia?
● What do you mean by partial hanging?
● Define and classify hypoxia.
● What do you mean by dry drowning?
● Describe the autopsy findings in the case of the neck in suicidal
antemortem hanging.
● Define lynching.
● Mention the criteria for froth in drowning.
● What are the surest signs of antemortem hanging?
● What are the mechanisms of drowning?
16
● Mention the postmortem findings in the neck in cases of hanging and
strangulation.
● Define Tardieu’s spot.
● What are the circumstances of drowning?
● What do you mean by café coronary?
● Classify drowning.
17
Autopsy
● Name the preservatives used for the preservation of viscera for
chemical analysis in suspected cases of poisoning.
● Who are the authorised people to perform postmortem examinations?
● A dead body was brought to the morgue of DMCH with a deep cut
injury on the front of the neck and profuse bleeding. What incisions
will you make sequentially during autopsy to examine the internal
findings? What will be your opinion on the autopsy report?
● Define autopsy. Classify an autopsy.
● What are the criteria of an ideal morgue?
● What do you mean by obscure autopsy?
● What do you mean by a negative autopsy? What are its causes?
● What are the common viscera preserved for autopsy?
● What are the prerequisites of an autopsy?
● A dead body was sent to the DMC morgue for autopsy. How will you
determine the time since death by examining different body parts?
● When do physicians refuse to hold postmortem examinations?
● What are the objectives of a medicolegal autopsy?
● Mention the postmortem opinions in cases of hanging and road traffic
accidents (RTA).
● A dead body was sent to the DMC morgue for autopsy. How will you
determine the time since death by examining different body parts?
18
Postmortem Artefacts
● Define Postmortem Artefacts.
● What are the postmortem artefacts?
19