Abstract
Purpose
Our purpose was to present our hospital experience with bullhorn injuries.
Methods
A retrospective analysis of patients in our Trauma Registry (1993–2012).
Results
Fifteen patients were included. All were hemodynamically stable on presentation, with a mean Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score and a Revised Trauma Score (RTS) of 15 and 11.9, respectively. The Injury Severity Score (ISS) and New Injury Severity Score were 13.6 ± 6 and 15.9 ± 9, respectively. Seven had an ISS > 15. Injuries resulted from an isolated blunt trauma (BT) in four, penetrating trauma (PT) in seven, with extensive soft tissue injuries (STI) in three, and a combined BT + PT mechanism in four patients, with extensive STI in all. Three patients had injuries to vessels in the groin, two with prehospital vein ligation. Five patients had abdominal visceral injuries, and another had a sheathed goring, with a traumatic abdominal wall hernia and retroperitoneal hematoma. Four patients had thoracic injuries, and one of them had a traumatic thoracoplasty with a large open thoracic wound, a flail chest, and extensive STI. Two patients had traumatic brain injury, and six had bone fractures. Two-thirds of patients required a surgical procedure under general anesthesia. Morbidity included three surgical site infections, one leg compartment syndrome, and one persistent lymph drainage. There was no mortality, and the mean length of hospital stay was 16 days.
Conclusions
Bullhorn and bullfighting injuries frequently have a multimechanistic origin which goes beyond a pure penetrating trauma. Associated blunt and STI were common in our series, and the overall prognosis of patients admitted to hospital was good.
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Conflict of interest
A. García-Marín, F. Turégano-Fuentes, A. Sánchez-Arteaga, R. Franco-Herrera, C. Simón-Adiego and M. Sanz-Sánchez declare that this manuscript has not been previously neither published nor submitted elsewhere for publication, it will not be sent to another journal, and there are no financial interests.
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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.
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García-Marín, A., Turégano-Fuentes, F., Sánchez-Arteaga, A. et al. Bullhorn and bullfighting injuries. Eur J Trauma Emerg Surg 40, 687–691 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00068-014-0381-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00068-014-0381-z