Gunshot and stab wounds in France: descriptive study from a national trauma registry

Severe trauma is a major problem worldwide. In France, blunt trauma (BT) is predominant and few studies are available on penetrating trauma (PT). The purpose of this study was to perform a descriptive analysis of severe gunshot (GSW) and stab wounds (SW) in patients who were treated in French trauma centers.

Retrospective study on prospectively collected data in a national trauma registry. All adult (> 15 years) trauma patients primarily admitted in 1 of the 17 trauma centers members of the Traumabase between January 2015 to December 2018 were included. Data from patients who had a PT were compared with those who had suffered a BT over the same period. Due to the known differences between GSW and SW, sub-group analyses on data from GSW, SW and BT were also performed.

8128 patients were included. Twelve percent of the study group had a PT. The main mechanism of PT was SW (68.1%). Five hundred and eighty patients with PT (59.4%) required surgery within the first 24 h. Severe hemorrhage was more frequent in penetrating traumas (11.2% vs. 7.8% p < 0.001). Hospital mortality following PT was 8.9% vs 11% for blunt trauma (p = 0.047). Among PT the mortality after GSW was ten times higher than after SW (23.8% vs 2%).

This work is the largest study to date that has specifically focused on GSW and SW in France, and will help improving knowledge in managing such patients in our country.