[Study of the mechanism of injuries due to high velocity projectiles]

In the experiments on pigs wounds on the muscle-connective tissues of the thighs were made at 50 meter range by projectiles of military Rifles M 48, M 70, M 16A FAL (the length of the wound canal from 214 to 228 mm), M 91/30 and Dragunov (the length of the wound canal from 160 to 164 mm). The mass of tissue excised at primary surgical debridement was taken as a criterium of the primary devitalization of tissue, the amount of the transferred energy was calculated as well as other parameters of the terminal ballistics. Shooting through the glycerine-soap blocks under the same conditions were parallelly performed. The examinations have shown that the degree of the primary mechanical injury depended on the amount of the transferred energy, which depended not only on the high initial velocity of the bullet but also on the disintegrated, deformed and fragmented bullet after passage through the tissue. The mass of the excised tissue can be a reliable criterium for evaluation of wound severity. There is a good correlation with the volume of the cavity in the soap blocks so that they can be used in experiments as simulant biological media.