![]() ![]() Recent reports demonstrated that patients are presenting more frequently with numerous gunshot wounds, as parts of multiple firearm injured patient scenarios, with greater anatomic Injury Severity Scores, and requiring more blood product transfusions than in the past. 7 The surgical care of firearm injury patients in these urban settings may be increasing in complexity as well. In the largest existing study of gunshot wound patients at an urban Level 1 trauma center, 75% required at least 1 operative procedure and many required multiple surgical procedures. 1, 5, 6įor the severely injured, gunshot wounds are often a surgical disease. In a recent report, Spitzer et al estimated the cost of initial hospitalizations alone for patients injured by firearms in America to be $734.6 million per year-a figure that multiplies to several billions when long-term medical care and employment loss are included. 1, 4 These injuries burden both the medical community and the American healthcare system with massive costs. When all firearm injuries are considered, over 100,000 Americans are killed or injured each year as a result of firearms and nonfatal firearm injuries have increased from 22.1 to 26.7 per 100,000 population during the last decade. 3 Equally foreboding, homicide is the number 1 cause of death in Black Americans between the ages of 15 and 34, and of these, 91% are the result of firearms. 1, 2 Firearms remain the most lethal means of suicide as over 95% of attempts with a firearm are fatal. 1 Suicide comprises the largest portion of firearm death and, contradicting the notion that firearm injury is an “urban problem,” suicide rates are greatest in rural locations. In the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data, firearm-related injury was reported as the third leading cause of injury death, accounting for over 36,000 American fatalities in 2015. The impact of firearm-related injury on life in the United States is staggering. ![]()
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