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Explosion injuries in Finland 1991-1995
I Mäkitie1, H Paloneva, S Tikka
1Division of Military Medicine, Logistics Training Centre of the Defence Forces, Lahti, Finland.
Background And Aims:
Explosion injuries have been considered an increasing problem in many countries. This study describes the incidence and significance of injuries of this kind in Finland.
Material And Methods:
All explosion injuries in the Finnish hospital records from January 1991 to December 1995 were studied.
Results:
A total of 493 persons (2.0 cases per 100,000 person-years) required hospital treatment for injuries caused by explosions. In addition to the injured, 14 persons died. Causes of the accidents were the following: various unspecified explosions in 32% of the cases, fireworks in 29%, explosive materials in 25%, and explosions of pressure vessels in 13%. The male to female ratio was 9:1, and the average age of the injured was 30 years. The injury profile showed soft tissue wounds in 26%, burns in 25%, ear and eye injuries in 23%, crush and traumatic amputations in 14%, fractures in 10%, and neurological in 2%. The average in-patient time was 11 days corresponding to altogether 5640 hospital days.
Conclusions:
Explosion injuries are epidemiologically not a great problem in comparison with all accidents, but neither can they be considered nowadays as a negligible medical problem in Finland.