Serious and fatal injuries can be sustained when anatomic structures are in close proximity to an airbag module cover at the moment of airbag deployment. Three cases of injuries in vehicle operators associated with airbag module covers are reviewed and discussed. Injuries ranged from the traumatic avulsion of a thumb to the development of a subdural hematoma with associated cerebral edema and respiratory arrest. Motor vehicle operators should be aware that although airbags can significantly reduce the severity of injuries sustained in frontal collisions the module cover has the potential to inflict serious, even fatal injuries.

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Our department has a database of thoracic gunshot wounds (GSWs), which has cataloged these injury patterns over the past five decades. Prevailing wisdom on the management of these injuries suggested operative treatment beyond tube thoracostomy is not commonly required. It was our clinical impression that the operative treatment required beyond chest tube placement has greatly increased over the past several decades, whereas the operative management of cardiac GSWs seemed to be increasingly infrequent events. To test these observations, we analyzed the treatment of GSWs to the chest and heart in four distinct time periods, categorized as “historical” (1973–1975 and 1988–1990) and “modern” (2005–2007 and 2015–2017). There was a significant increase in emergent thoracotomy, delayed thoracic operations, overall operative interventions, and pulmonary resections from the historical period to the modern era. There was a decline in cardiac injuries treated, whereas the number of injuries remained constant. Mortality was unchanged between the early and later periods. Operative treatment beyond tube thoracostomy was much more prevalent for noncardiac thoracic GSWs in the past two decades than in the prior decades, whereas the number of cardiac wounds treated decreased by half.

Since the inception in 1990 of a Clinical Forensic Medicine Program at the Louisville Office of the Kentucky Medical Examiner Program, six children have undergone repeat evaluations for physical injuries. Herein, we examine the overall number of cases from January 1991 through December 1994, and the circumstances and outcomes of the six children undergoing reevaluation. Despite the implementation of an organized Forensic Medicine Program, some children in our area suffer repeated episodes of recognized abuse and death.