Injury patterns in low intensity conflict

Injury patterns and their outcome has been the subject of interest in all kinds of military conflicts. This retrospective study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital (Level I trauma centre) to find out the trends in injuries in low intensity conflict, adequacy of pre hospital treatment, mortality patterns and adequacy of treatment after reaching tertiary care hospital. 418 patients were treated over a period of two years. All were male and 76% younger than 30 years of age. 61% patients reported directly from the site of incident and 39% were transferred from other trauma centre. Two-third of patients (73.9%) reported with at least one limb injury and 44.9% with extremity injury alone. Multiple injuries were most common injury (29%). Head and neck injuries were seen in 20% patients and Thoracic and abdominal injuries were seen in 2.6% and 3.4% patients only. Most common mode of injury was Gunshot wound (41.4%), followed by splinter injuries (39.2%) and Road traffic accident(RTA) (19.4%). Overall mortality was 3.8% and inpatient mortality of 1.4%. Head and neck injuries were leading cause of death followed by thoracic injuries.