Recent guidelines have been produced advising doctors working in emergency departments that they should report all gunshot injuries to the police (albeit with consent in all but very limited circumstances). This article will discuss some of the legal and ethical issues that surround breaking patient confidentiality in relation to gunshot wounds and other potentially dangerous patients; and look...

Although dog bite injuries to the head and scalp of children occur frequently, penetrating dog bite wounds to the cranial vault occur only occasionally and may go unnoticed on initial examination. Substantial morbidity and mortality can ensue if these penetrating injuries are not detected and treated. The authors detail the evaluation of dog bites of the scalp in young children. They highlight ...

This retrospective review of eight years of trauma registry data at an inner-city level-1 trauma center was undertaken to discover at what age urban children start to become at high risk of being victims of either a major gunshot wound or stabbing. We reviewed data from 2,191 patients who were the victim of either a gunshot wound or stabbing, were 18 years of age or under, and met pre-establish...

Gunshot injuries of the human body challenge surgical teams in the emergency department. Since such injuries do not follow any rule, every patient should be considered a special case. Our case, of bullet embolism from injured inferior cava vein to the right heart ventricle is a rare one. Such cases make us be more alert for diagnosis and treatment of this kind of injury. Well equipped hospitals...

Since the introduction of the term “wound ballistics”[1,2] indicating the study of the wounding mechanisms of missiles [3], extensive experimental research on this field has beenconductedby investigators with a military background [4-7]. In the context of wound ballistics, the term missile is used to denote various types of small projectiles, such as bullets and fragments, that have enough kine...

Gunshot injuries (GSI) of the cranial area have an extremely high mortality rate. Herein, we present a girl who has been living with a bullet in the posterior sellar region. A 6-year-old girl was admitted with complaints of headache, polyuria and polydypsia, which started after a GSI. At the time of admission the patient's anthropometric, physical and neurological examinations were normal. Urin...

Penetrating abdominal trauma has been traditionally treated by exploratory laparotomy. Nowadays laparoscopy has become an accepted practice in hemodynamically stable patient without signs of peritonitis. We report a case of a lower anterior abdominal gunshot patient treated laparoscopically. A 32-year-old male presented to the Emergency Department with complaint of gunshot penetrating injury at...

Background. Gunshot injuries occupy one of the leading places in a number (combat injuries) that occur military conflicts.
 Aim. To study effect gunshot wounds chest (penetrating and non-penetrating), as well closed trauma on respiratory function.
 Materials methods. The included 78 patients with diagnosis combined trauma, including penetrating/non-penetrating wound or injuries. media...

OBJECTIVE To examine the epidemiology of Americans shooting themselves in the foot. DESIGN Data from the Firearm Injury Surveillance Study (1993-2010) collected using the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System were examined. Non-fatal firearm-related injuries were recorded during patients' initial emergency department visits. SETTING United States hospital emergency departments, 199...

BACKGROUND Low-velocity pelvic gunshot injuries occur commonly in urban trauma centers, occasionally involving concomitant intestinal viscus injury leading to potential fracture site contamination. Surgical debridement of the fractures may be necessary to prevent osteomyelitis, although not routinely performed in many centers. The purpose of this study was to determine whether fracture debridem...