Airgun Injuries: A National Health Hazard

Abstract

Between 1983 and 1989, 41 patients were admitted to King Fahad Hospital (KFH) in Al-Baha, Saudi Arabia with airgun injuries. Of the patients admitted, 83% were under 18 years of age. The majority of injuries (80.5%) were trivial. However, 19.5% had serious injuries that required major surgery. These injuries were considered potentially lethal. Public education via the media will probably be effective in reducing the number of injuries caused by these weapons.A Merdad, M Rawas, M Al-Garni, Airgun Injuries: A National Health Hazard. 1992; 12(1): 43-46 Numerous reports have outlined the seriousness of airgun pellet injuries, but they mainly concern eye and other soft tissue injuries [1,2]. Few case reports have been published showing serious and rare complications of these pellet injuries [3][4]. Other reports have highlighted the potentially lethal injuries, the poor supervision of children who use the guns and the inadequacies of the law relating to these weapons [4]. To the best of our knowledge, there has been no report about this problem from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The aim of this article is to survey airgun injuries seen at KFH in Al-Baha and to show the magnitude and seriousness of this health hazard. Material and MethodsThis retrospective study was carried out at King Fahad Hospital in Al-Baha. The medical files of patients admitted between March 1983 and March 1989 with firearm injuries were reviewed. This study included airguns only. All patients with injuries not requiring admission to the hospital were excluded. All the data available were evaluated regarding circumstances of the accident, course of management in the hospital and the details of their surgical procedures. ResultsA total of 63 patients suffering from firearm injuries were admitted to King Fahad Hospital in Al-Baha. Fortyone of these patients were admitted for airgun injuries. Of these 41 patients, 33 (80.5%) were, male and eight (19.5%) were female. The youngest patient was three-years-old and oldest, 35-years. The mean age for all patients was 12.93 years. There were 34 patients (82.93%) ≤ 18 years old, while seven patients were more than 18-years-old. Only one of the 41 patients (2.44%) was non-Saudi. Thirty-seven patients (90.24%) were shot by another person while four patients (9.76%) had accidentally shot themselves. Thirteen patients (31.7%) had injuries to the head and neck, two (4.9%) chest, seven (17.1%) abdomen, nine (21.9%) upper extremities, and ten (24.4%) had injuries in the lower extremities (Table 1).There was no record that any case was reported to the police. The patients were classified according to type of surgery performed. Thirty-three patients (80.49%) had minor surgery (removal of the pellet under general or local anesthesia and dealing with the wound), while eight patients had major surgery.