Bullet Wounds to the Brain among Civilians

Haider Tawfeeq Abdulhussein, Sadiq Fadhil hammoodi, Asa'ad F. Albayati

Abstract: 579 civilian patients presented with bullet wounds to the brain treated and followed were studied retrospectively. The study was done from the first of January 2004 to the first of January 2008 in Al- Kadhimia teaching hospital. Most of the patients were in the second and third decades with high percentage of males in the study sample. Penetrating bullet injuries were the most common type of injury encountered in our study. Glasgow coma scale was the most important tool in assessing the patients on admission and also on following them up. All of the patients underwent skull X-ray and 522 had CT scan.218 patients have undergone surgery, either in the form of Craniectomy (in most of the patients) or craniotomy. There is a mortality rate of 61 % (355 patients), most of them are those who had GCS score of 3-5. Other complications such as epilepsy and infections are studied and recorded.

Keywords: Bullet wounds, Iraq