Citation

Gachabayov M, Latifi R. J. Emerg. Trauma Shock 2019; 12(1): 72-73.

Affiliation

Department of Surgery, Westchester Medical Center, New York Medical College, New York, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, INDO-US Emergency and Trauma Collaborative, Publisher Medknow Publications)

DOI

10.4103/JETS.JETS_111_18

PMID

31057292

PMCID

PMC6496985

Abstract

A 15-year-old male patient was admitted 26-min after having been inadvertently shot by his brother. He was shot at a close range while playing with an air rifle. On admission: The patient was unconscious and cyanotic... The entry wound was 0.4 cm in diameter located over the sternum at the level of 5th costal cartilage. Emergency department thoracotomy with pericardiotomy was performed. Cardiac tamponade was resolved... The patient developed acute kidney injury, and subsequently multiorgan dysfunction. On the second postoperative day, the patient died.

Even though air guns and rifles are considered nonlethal or less-lethal weapons, they can inflict life-threatening injuries, especially when used at a close range. The mechanism of propulsive power in air weapons is sudden decompression of a compressed gas. Muzzle velocity of air weapons may vary from 60 to 380 mm/s depending on the power source and mechanism. However, despite air weapons are nonlethal, their muzzle velocity often exceeds the velocity required to penetrate eye (39 m/s),[3] skin (38–70 m/s), and bone (106 m/s). Moreover, given lower temperatures produced by pellets as compared to powdered weapon projectiles, injuries caused by them have a higher preponderance for bacterial contamination. Several cardiac injuries inflicted by air weapons have been reported so far. The tragedy with air guns, in particular, is that the highest rate is observed in the age range of 10–14 years (48.4 in 100,000) and 66% of those injuries are unintentional...

Language: en