Citation

Mayo A, Kluger Y. World J. Emerg. Surg. 2006; 1(1): 33.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group - BMC)

DOI

10.1186/1749-7922-1-33

PMID

17101058

PMCID

PMC1675994

Abstract

Bombings and explosion incidents directed against innocent civilians are the primary instrument of global terror. In the present review we highlight the major observations and lessons learned from these events. Five mechanisms of blast injury are outlined and the different type of injury that they cause is described. Indeed, the consequences of terror bombings differ from those of non-terrorism trauma in severity and complexity of injury, and constitute a new class of casualties that differ from those of conventional trauma. The clinical implications of terror bombing, in treatment dilemmas in the multidimensional injury, ancillary evaluation and handling of terror bombing mass casualty event are highlighted. All this leads to the conclusion that thorough medical preparedness to cope with this new epidemic is required, and that understanding of detonation and blast dynamics and how they correlate with the injury patterns is pivotal for revision of current mass casualty protocols.

Language: en