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The childhood air gun: serious injuries and surgical interventions
N Bhattacharyya1, C A Bethel, D A Caniano
1Department of Surgery, Ohio State University and Children's Hospital, Columbus, USA.
Insights
Powerful air guns, often given to children, cause serious injuries requiring medical intervention. These nonpowder firearms are not toys and can lead to significant long-term disability, necessitating careful evaluation and treatment.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Trauma
- Firearm Injury Epidemiology
- Public Health
Background:
- Nonpowder firearms, including air guns, are increasingly powerful and commonly given to children.
- There is a growing concern regarding the potential for these weapons to inflict serious trauma.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the types and severity of injuries caused by air guns in children.
- To assess the need for operative intervention and long-term morbidity associated with these injuries.
Main Methods:
- Retrospective chart review of pediatric patients admitted with air gun injuries.
- Data collected included weapon type, injury circumstances, location, severity, surgical procedures, and patient outcomes.
- Study conducted at an urban level I pediatric trauma center between July 1988 and March 1995.
Main Results:
- 42 children were admitted with air gun injuries, with a mean age of 10 years.
- 50% of patients (21 children) required operative procedures.
- 16 patients experienced serious long-term disability, and 10 injuries were potentially lethal.
Conclusions:
- Air guns are capable of causing severe injuries that often necessitate surgical intervention.
- The long-term consequences of air gun injuries can be significant.
- Physicians and parents must recognize air guns as dangerous weapons, not toys, and manage injuries similarly to powder weapon trauma.
Objective:
Increasingly powerful nonpowder firearms or air guns are frequently given to children as toys. We undertook the present study to evaluate the injuries caused by these firearms, based on the concern that they are capable of inflicting serious trauma.
Design:
Descriptive, retrospective chart review.
Setting:
Urban level I pediatric trauma center.
Participants:
The study included all children with injuries secondary to air guns who were admitted between July 1988 and March 1995.
Main Outcome Measures:
Type of weapon, circumstances of injury, anatomic location of injury, injury severity, surgeries performed, morbidity.
Interventions:
None.
Results:
There were 42 admissions with a mean hospital stay of seven days (range 1 to 136 days). The average age was 10 years (range 1 to 23 years) with a median age of 11 years. There were 35 boys and 7 girls. Twenty-nine of the 42 injuries were caused by a family member or friend and five were self-inflicted. The mean injury severity score was 8.3. While there were no fatalities, 21 children (50%) underwent operative procedures for their injuries. Ten of the injuries were potentially lethal, of which seven were due to the "pump" action air gun. Sixteen patients had serious long-term disability as a result of their injuries.
Conclusion:
Air guns can cause a variety of serious injuries, often requiring operative intervention. The long-term morbidity from some of these injuries is significant. Both parents and physicians should be aware that nonpowder guns are not toys, but weapons capable of inflicting serious trauma. The evaluation and treatment of air gun injuries should be similar to that currently used for powder weapon injuries. Recommendations for evaluation and treatment are made.