How do gunshot victims manage pain without health care? This paper examines this question through ethnographic data of a single gunshot victim who self-medicated with Percocet. The observations for this paper were collected in Philadelphia between January of 2010 and October of 2011, and were part of a larger ethnographic study that included 40 gunshot victims recruited from an outpatient traum...

With the high level of crime in the Western Cape, the state hospitals have witnessed a tremendous increase in the incidence of gunshot injuries. The Groote Schuur Trauma Unit sees between 70 and 120 gunshot injuries a month. Many of these involve the musculoskeletal system, and some the spine. This is in stark contrast to the European experience. Of 34 903 trauma cases seen in Scotland over 28 ...

OBJECTIVE To prospectively evaluate the safety and accuracy of physical examination in determining the management of stable patients with gunshot wounds to the neck. DESIGN Prospective study of 59 patients with gunshot wounds to the neck. PATIENTS AND METHODS Fifty-nine stable patients with gunshot wounds to the neck managed between December 2001 and August 2003. All patients had a physical...

BACKGROUND Coverage of traumatic soft-tissue defects in the lower limb is a common procedure. OBJECTIVES The purpose of this prospective case series study was explore the capacity of the perforator-based sural flap in reconstruction surgery of patients with high velocity gunshot wounds in the distal third of the leg and heel pad of the foot. PATIENTS AND METHODS A prospective case series st...

This is a case report of extra-peritoneal rectal injury, secondary to a gunshot, that was managed non-operatively. A 57-year old male presented with a single gunshot to the right buttock and had blood per rectum. Extra-peritoneal rectal injuries were seen on proctoscopy and he had no genitourinary injury. He was managed successfully without rectal injury repair orfaecal stream diversion.

Thoracic trauma occurs frequently but seldom requires surgery (10-20%, [1]). The mortality rate for gunshot wound of the chest varies from 14.3 to 36.8% [2]. We report, herein an example of bullet injury to the pulmonary artery (PA) following a thoracic gunshot wound. This patient had previous history of coronary surgery. Absolute and relative indications for exploratory thoracotomy in emergenc...

BACKGROUND Gunshot wounds impose a continuous burden on community and hospital resources. Gunshot injuries to the extremities might involve complex soft tissue, bone, vascular, musculotendinous, and nerve injuries. A precise knowledge of anatomy is needed to evaluate and treat those injuries. OBJECTIVES To review our experience with gunshot wounds to the extremities. METHODS We retrospectiv...

BACKGROUND CONTEXT The incidence of violent crimes has risen over the past decade. With it, gunshot injuries have become increasingly more common in the civilian population. Among the most devastating injuries are gunshot wounds to the spine. PURPOSE The purpose of this article is to provide a thorough review of the pathomechanics, diagnosis and treatment of gunshot wounds to the spine. STU...

Shunt malformations caused by a prior cardiac gunshot accident are a very rare cause for late deterioration of ventricular function. This case describes the long-term echocardiographic findings in a patient with a cardiac gunshot at age 13, presenting with progressive signs of congestive heart failure 25 years later.

BACKGROUND Gun violence is on the rise in some European countries, however most of the literature on gunshot injuries pertains to military weaponry and is difficult to apply to civilians, due to dissimilarities in wound contamination and wounding potential of firearms and ammunition. Gunshot injuries in civilians have more focal injury patterns and should be considered distinct entities. METH...