The 2020 Beirut Explosion: A Healthcare Perspective

On August 4th, 2020, at 6:07pm local time, an explosion took place in Beirut's port near the central district. This tragic event reportedly left more than 204 victims dead, more than 6,500 wounded, and displaced around 300,000 from their homes. Patients were transported to several hospitals, which became quickly overwhelmed within minutes by the large number of patient admissions. This is a retrospective chart review conducted on 292 patients, who presented to the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) after sustaining blast-related injuries during the Beirut port explosion on August 4th, 2020. Measures including age, gender, location of the injury, mechanism of blast injury (primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary) and outcomes were collected. Time of arrival of the first victim was 10 minutes after the explosion. Patients across all ages presented to the medical center (age range from 3 months to 86 years) and the majority of injuries were in the upper extremity (45.6%), and head and neck region (43.2%). Most blast-related injuries were due to secondary and tertiary types, 78.4% and 24.1% respectively. This study aims to expand the literature and widen the knowledge regarding the mechanism of injury associated with the Beirut port explosion. Moreover, it could be helpful in preparing medical staff, healthcare centers and other communities to work under difficult conditions in similar disasters and improve the global response to devastating events.