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Terminal ballistics of the Russian AK 74 assault rifle: two wounded patients and experimental findings
Objective:
To study the effects of the Russian AK 74 assault rifle missile (5.45 x 39 mm) on an experimental model and on two wounded patients.
Design:
Experimental and clinical study.
Setting:
Brodarski Institute, Marine Research and Special Technologies, Zagreb, Croatia, and General Hospital, Karlovac, Karlovac, Croatia.
Materials And Patients:
Twenty gelatin blocks used as tissue stimulants and two patients with gunshot wounds caused by AK 74 assault rifle missiles.
Interventions:
After being fired at, gelatin blocks were filmed with a high-speed television camera and radiographs were made of the blocks. Wounds of our patients were treated with minimal excision and drainage.
Main Outcome Measures:
The correlation between the wound profile method and our experimental model, and the correlation between the wound profile method and the wounds of the patients we treated.
Results:
Bullets were not found to deform or fragment in tissue stimulant. The bullet path through the gelatin block was found to differ from the path predicted according to the wound profile method.
Conclusion:
Gelatin disruption in the initial 8 to 11 cm of the bullet path is minimal. Even the highest-velocity military missiles, like the AK 74 5.45 x 39 mm bullet, may cause only minimal tissue disruption in this initial part of tissue penetration.
