Considerations of Dealing with Lumbar and Spinal Trauma Injuries in High-speed Combat Bullets

Document Type : Case Report

Authors
1 Department of Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
2 Trauma Research Center, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Background and Aim: The great experiences of martial medicine in the axis of resistance and in the field are not hidden to anyone. Management of the victims, each of which shows a treasure of therapeutic measures in critical and combat situations, the importance of the issue is that the war injuries have a great difference with urban damages. Therefore, it is necessary to pay special attention to this aspect. This case report study has been performed on a 24-year-old casualty at a field hospital.
Case Report: A 24-year-old casualty, who enters the emergency room of the field hospital on his foot, as he walks, he expressed a low back discomfort according to a gunshot wound. After a quick triage and surgical consultation, he was immediately transferred to the field operation room. Under a sterile condition, the wound was completely exposed and examined. There was a big hole in his back, which was thoroughly washed and temporarily stitched and closed. As a possibility of spinal injury, he was referred to the hospital with a backboard. Fortunately, further evaluation revealed no damage.
Conclusion: The destructive effects of the war bullets are due to the release of high energy tissue damages, and their effects do not only lead to direct damages, but also can cause much greater damage than the initial path of the bullet on the vital tissues around its passage. The location of the bullet's entry and exit is an important determinant of injuries and deaths in war wound victims, as the injuries can cause damages to the central nervous system (brain or spinal cord) or severe impairment to visceral organs and life-threatening bleeding.
Keywords

  • Receive Date 13 November 2021
  • Revise Date 09 December 2021
  • Accept Date 27 December 2021