Keywords
contusions
lung injury
war related injuries
wounds gunshot
How to Cite
Abstract
The authors reported the case of an African military 27 years suffered an injury set on gunshot large caliber at the right hemi-thorax. He had a cough with hemoptysis and a saturation of 70% air. Auscultation found disappearance of breath sounds on the right. Chest radiography showed a face of almost complete opacity of the right lung field without bone lesions. In front of parenchymal involvement, the balance sheet was completed by a Computed Tomography scan, which looked at the importance. An earlier lung contusion of the lower and middle lobes of the right lung was highlighted. Support was symptomatic in this degraded environment, with a formal sitting and infusion of a gram of paracetamol. There was no specific treatment, particularly a probabilistic antibiotic or corticosteroid therapy. Then the patient received healing led for ten days, before returning to his unit without sequelae.
The two main complications of lung by bullet wounds are lung-infection and respiratory distress syndrome. The set on wounds were wounds of war called “simple”. The feature of this case was the caliber of the bullet (caliber-type 12.7 mm), the importance of pectoral groove and the width of the inlet and outlet to suggest this hypothesis. It was probable that for our patient, the pressure wave of the munition on the path of the ballistic attrition tunnel was absorbed into the parenchyma leading to pulmonary contusion. A wound of this type has been rarely reported in the literature and allowed to remember the importance of questioning the circumstances of a war wound. Mastering ballistic concepts was particularly relevant for doctors and caregivers in these situations. Here, a simple ride set on has led significant lesions potentially fatal.
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