Ankara bombing: distribution of injury patterns with radiological imaging

To describe and explain the blast injuries and imaging findings in the Ankara terrorist explosion that took place on October 10, 2015.

A total of 77 patients who underwent radiologic imaging were classified as primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary, according to the injury type. The patients were evaluated based on body regions, such as head and neck, thorax, abdomen, lower extremity, and upper extremity.

Blast lung injury was identified in one patient and tympanic membrane perforation in seven patients, as the primary injury. Sixty-two of 77 patients had secondary blast injuries caused by shrapnel. The blast injuries were observed in the head and neck (16/77, 20.7%), thorax (11/77, 14.2%), abdomen (16/77, 20.7%), lower extremity (48/77, 62.3%), and upper extremity (5/77, 6.4%). Vascular injuries were seen in eight cases, of which seven were in the lower extremities.

The most common blast injury pattern was of a secondary type in the current study. Lower extremities were the significantly more affected body region, probably due to the bomb exploding at ground level. In mass casualty events, radiologic imaging is located at the centre of patient management.