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Stab wounds occur four times more than gunshot wounds in the United Kingdom, but the mortality rate associated with stabbing has ranged from 0-4% as 85% of injuries sustained from stab wounds only affect subcutaneous tissue. [7] [9] [27] In Belgium, most assaults resulting in a stab wound occur to and by men and persons of ethnic minorities. [28]
Given its anterior position in the abdominal cavity and its large size, the liver is prone to gun shot wounds and stab wounds. [2] Its firm location under the diaphragm also makes it especially prone to shearing forces. [1] Common causes of this type of injury are blunt force mechanisms such as motor vehicle accidents, falls, and sports injuries.
Chest-wall defects are usually evident in cases of injury to the chest wall, such as stab or bullet wounds ("open pneumothorax"). In secondary spontaneous pneumothoraces, vulnerabilities in the lung tissue are caused by a variety of disease processes, particularly by rupturing of bullae (large air-containing lesions) in cases of severe emphysema .
Symptoms may include pain, [3] orthopnea, (shortness of breath when lying flat), [4] and coughing. In people with herniation of abdominal organs, signs of intestinal blockage or sepsis in the abdomen may be present. [5] Bowel sounds may be heard in the chest, and shoulder or epigastric pain may be present.
Stab wounds to the heart are typically survivable with medical attention, though gunshot wounds to the heart are not. The right ventricle is most susceptible to injury due to its prominent location. The two primary consequences of traumatic injury to the heart are severe hemorrhaging and fluid buildup around the heart.
Management is a mixture of medical (eg pain relief, respiratory support, chest drainage and antibiotics), non-medical (physiotherapy and rehabilitation) and surgical (fixation of rib fractures if appropriate and operative treatment of cardiac, lung, airway, diaphragm and oesophageal injuries).
A penetrating head injury, or open head injury, is a head injury in which the dura mater, the outer layer of the meninges, is breached. [1] Penetrating injury can be caused by high-velocity projectiles or objects of lower velocity such as knives, or bone fragments from a skull fracture that are driven into the brain.
A hemothorax (derived from hemo-[blood] + thorax [chest], plural hemothoraces) is an accumulation of blood within the pleural cavity.The symptoms of a hemothorax may include chest pain and difficulty breathing, while the clinical signs may include reduced breath sounds on the affected side and a rapid heart rate.