Citation

Luque JC, Luque JE, Monsalve GA. Mil. Med. 2007; 172(8): 899-901.

Affiliation

Department of Neurosurgery, Hospital Militar Central, Universidad Militar Nueva Granada, Transv 3 No. 49-00 Bogota, D.C., Colombia, South America.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, Association of Military Surgeons of the United States)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

17803088

Abstract

In times of conflict, physicians can encounter all types of trauma, even uncommon trauma. The case we present is one of those cases. A 30-year-old, male, Army sergeant suffered polytrauma caused by fragmentation missiles and the shock wave from an antipersonnel mine in combat; the amputated fingers of the right hand produced ocular trauma, with loss of the right eyeball. The patient also suffered facial injuries and mild head trauma. Computed tomographic scans demonstrated intracerebral osseous objects. The patient underwent cranial wound debridement and dural repair, and several osseous objects, which corresponded to the victim's phalanges, were found in the cerebral parenchyma. In shock wave accidents, body parts from the victim can serve as missiles and can cause the same or greater damage, compared with conventional missiles. This is the first case of this kind of trauma published in the worldwide literature.

Language: en