Renal Injuries: Penetrating

Data from 17,726 battle casualties admitted to all the US Army hospitals in the Republic of Vietnam (RVN) from March 1966 to July 1967 (60% of all patients wounded during this time) revealed that 13.8% of all wounds involved the abdomen, and that the kidney was involved in approximately 9% of those with abdominal wounds. The mortality in this group (who had renal wounds as a component of their abdominal wounds) was 7.8% during the Vietnam War, compared with a mortality of 25% during the Korean War and 35% for such wounds during World War II. As reported by urologists, the incidence of wounds and injuries of the genitourinary tract among total casualties treated at 3 hospitals in Vietnam was between 3% and 4.2%; renal wounds and injuries accounted for 31% to 35% of the total number of urological wounds treated.Working in hospitals in Japan, primarily at the US Army Hospital Camp Zama, from February 1966 through March 1971, we authors (JNW and JWW) managed 692 genitourinary wounds and injuries in 503 patients. Renal trauma occurred in 132 (26.2%) of 503 patients with urological injuries and accounted for 132 (19.2%) of 692 of all genitourinary wounds and injuries (Table 2-1 and Figure 2-1).