Balistique: Actualisation OEF/OIF

Combat wounds in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2005 to 2009

J Belmont JP et all. (J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2012;73: 3-12)

Morceaux choisis: 

Among the 1,992,232 military service members who were deployed, there were 29,624 distinct combat wounds in 7,877 combat casualties. The mean age of the combat casualty cohort was 26.0 years old. The combat casualties were predominantly male (98I8%), Army (77,5%), and junior enlisted (59,0%). The distribution of combat wounds was as follows: head/neck, 28,1%; thorax, 9,9%; abdomen, 10,1%; and extremities, 51,9%. Explosive injury mechanisms accounted for 74,4% of all combat casualties, which was significantly higher than those caused by gunshot wounds (19,9%) (p G 0.0001). From 2005 to 2007, explosive mechanisms of injury were significantly more common in Iraq than in Afghanistan (p G 0.001). The percentage of explosive mechanisms increased significantly in Afghanistan between the years 2007 (59,5%) and 2008 (73,6%) ( p < 0.0003)

In addition, 1,064 (13,5%) of all combat casualties also sustained burn injuries