BACKGROUND This study aimed to assess the effects of local and state anti-crime initiatives on the number of gunshot wound admissions to a level 1 trauma center. METHODS A retrospective time series analysis of gunshot wound admissions from July 1, 1990 to July 30, 1999 was performed at a level 1 trauma center. The gunshot wound admissions were divided into four subgroups: assault, suicide, ac...

OBJECTIVE This report describes ambulatory care visits to hospital emergency departments in the United States. Statistics are presented on selected patient and visit characteristics. METHODS The data presented in this report were collected from the 1995 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS). NHAMCS is part of the ambulatory care component of the National Health Care Survey...

ABSTRACT Vascular injury presents a great challenge to the emergency resident because these injuries require urgent intervention to prevent loss of life or limb. Sometimes serious vascular injury presents with only subtle or occult signs or symptoms. The patient may present weeks or months after initial injury with symptoms of vascular insufficiency, embolization, pseudoaneurysm, arteriovenous ...

The purpose of this study was to analyze changing etiologies for admission to a spinal cord injury center. This study was designed to retrospectively analyze the etiology of admissions to a spinal cord injury center during a 15-year period, specifically gunshot versus nongunshot wound injuries. Gunshot wounds are a well-recognized cause of spinal cord injury. In some centers, up to 52% of admis...

Introduction In 2011, injury by firearms accounted for 32,351 deaths (10.4 deaths per 100,000 population) in the United States1. This rate was higher than any infectious or parasitic disease (the highest being 2.5 for both viral hepatitis and HIV disease)1. Furthermore, death by gunshots accounted for over half of all suicides and over two-thirds of all homicides in the US1. Despite the disprop...

OBJECTIVES This report describes ambulatory care visits to hospital emergency departments in the United States. Statistics are presented on selected patient and visit characteristics. METHODS The data presented in this report were collected from the 1996 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS). NHAMCS is part of the ambulatory care component of the National Health Care Surve...

Automated scanning electron microscope analyses of gunshot residue samplers are being performed by many crime laboratories all over the world. Often the criminalist-technician operators of these instruments do not have adequate training for the interpretation of spectra generated by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (parts I and II of this series) and distinguishing gunshot residue from simi...

BACKGROUND Gunshot injuries are the third leading cause of spinal injuries, after falls from a significant height and traffic accidents. Severity of spinal damage from gunshot injury depends upon certain mechanical and biological factors. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of biological factors on survival in cases of spinal gunshot injury. METHODS A total of 110 cases...