Severe facial rubber bullet injuries: less lethal but extremely harmful weapons.

Abstract

UNLABELLED:

Less-lethal rubber-bullet weapons are designed to induce blunt injuries that incapacitate violent individuals.

AIM AND SCOPE:

We intend to study the functional and aesthetic impairments and the cost in terms of social health resulting from rubber-bullet facial trauma.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

We retrospectively collected all the facial trauma cases caused by mass-appeal, less-lethal guns followed up in two French university hospitals since the year 2000. We did not consider the facial injuries caused by professional, less-lethal, rubber or plastic bullet guns.

CONCLUSION:

We showed that mass-appeal, less-lethal rubber-bullet guns induce severe traumas with irreversible functional consequences and long-term social implications. Victims of facial rubber-bullet traumas should be managed like high-energy trauma patients and benefit from extremely careful primary wound care.

• Authors: Roman Hossein Khonsari, Gilles Fleuridas, Ludovic Arzul, François Lefèvre, Clémentine Vincent, Chloé Bertolus
• Journal: Injury (Injury) Vol. 41 Issue 1 Pg. 73-6 (Jan 2010) ISSN: 1879-0267 [Electronic] Netherlands
• PMID: 19552903 (Publication Type: Case Reports, Journal Article)

Chemical References

• Rubber

Topics

• Adult
• Facial Injuries (complications, surgery)
• Female
• Firearms (classification, legislation & jurisprudence)
• France
• Humans
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Plastic Surgery Procedures (methods)
• Reoperation
• Retrospective Studies
• Rubber
• Treatment Outcome
• Wound Infection (etiology, therapy)
• Wounds, Gunshot (complications, surgery)