Clinical observations and brief reviews have been presented in ´handling eighty seven cases of Gunshot wound patients during the period from September 1959 to August 1961 at Capital Korean Army Hospital.
Among the eighty seven cases, sixty five cases (seventy five percent) were from penetrating gunshot wound, where as twenty two cases (twenty five percent) were from non-penetrating gunshot wound and shell fragment wound.
The best treatment, generally, for the gunshot wound is that proper and adequate cleansing by irrigation and complete debridement with primary closure.
For the chest gunshot wound, initial conservative management such as rapid reexpension of the lung by early breathing exercise were accepted, but open thoracotomy have to be done on eleven cases as a life saving procedure.
For the abdominal gunshot wound, the patients with gunshot wound within six hours after injury, primary suture of damaged organs except ruptured spleen and gallbladder were successfully performed. And the patients with the abdominal gunshot wound 6 hours after injury were treated by ileostomy or colostomy with primary suture of damaged organs and secondary closure of ileostomy or colostomy.
|