Civilian Gunshot Injuries: Editorial Comment

Excerpt

More than 10 years ago, Clinical Orthopaedic and Related Research ^® published a symposium on civilian gunshot injuries (GSIs). At that time, the reported annual incidence of civilian GSIs in the United States was 58,841, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Sadly, by 2012, the annual incidence of civilian GSIs in the United States had risen to 73,883, according to the CDC. This staggering increase in the prevalence of civilian firearm injury is quite troubling. The swell of firearm injuries is even more alarming when we realize that the prevalence of civilian GSIs in the United States during the past decade has far exceeded the gun-related wounds associated with several major American military conflicts during the same period of time. Although much of our knowledge on the management of patients with these injuries has been derived from military conflict, it is interesting to note that during the first 7 years of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the number of American soldiers killed (4,400) corresponded approximately to the number of American civilians killed with guns every 7 weeks [2]. Clearly, it is time for us to not only reconsider the musculoskeletal implications of the civilian GSIs, but to explore the low-velocity/low-energy ballistic injuries that are more pervasive in the civilian setting. …