Abstract

Warfare is massive destruction of human life and infrastructure. A single war can catapult a nation many years back from its current state. Wide scale trauma is gigantic problem to deal with and as latest war trends are towards targeting more civilians there are huge number of civilian casualties apart from injured military personals. Injuries in war are multifactorial depending mostly on arms engaged.

In this retrospective study, we studied of 8437 war injured people who were transported and treated in Imam Khomeini hospital, Tehran between 1980 and 1988. 7352 were physically injured 67% had extremity injuries with mean age of 23 years. 36% had upper extremity injury and 64% lower extremity. Regarding the causes of fractures, mortar and cannon trauma were the highest cause of fracture 54%. 37.7 % had infection of fracture site, 17.1% had vascular lesions and 20.4% had nerve injuries with fractures. Also, among the injured, 15% were amputation cases.

Trauma is one of the major health problems in countries that have already or are currently engaged in war. Extremity injuries as it is one of the most common traumata in war were considered in our study. The important principle is recognizing injury types, ways of treating and preventing further complications.

Keywords: Warfare; Trauma management; Extremity injuries