There can be several indicators of violence in society. However, in no other health unit such violence acquires visibility as in emergency. This study aimed to examine whether there is divergence between the history of medical consultation and diagnosis of physical aggressions in the emergency unit. A cross-sectional study was conducted in an emergency unit in the city of Araçatuba, state of São Paulo, Brazil, based on medical records, considering data on patients, lesions, history, diagnosis and treatment. Out of 133,537 visits, only 153 were recorded as physical aggressions, and 161 informed violence in the history of the consultation; 59.6% were male, 60.6% were between 20 and 44 years old. Excoriations, pain and injury predominated. There were no associations between state violence in the diagnosis and the characteristics of patients and visits (schedule, routing, gender, age). The conclusion is that in most cases violence reported in the history of the consultation was not mentioned in the diagnosis of injuries. The characteristics of care and patients were not related to the fact that professionals diagnosed the case as violence.
violence; attitude of health personnel; public health; emergency medical services
