Home Doctor: Practical Medicine for Every Household
Abdominal Trauma Abdominal trauma is injury to the internal organs of the abdomen, either by direct impact or by the action of shock waves. Trauma is divided into open and closed. Open is when an object penetrates the abdominal cavity, like a bullet, and closed is when the trauma occurs from an impact against a person’s body from a collision or from a seat belt, among others. In my country, there is a very high crime rate that has been increasing in the last 20 years. Any street robbery can result in a gunshot or stab wound, because thieves are extremely aggressive. While doing my residency in general surgery, we used to receive gunshot wounds especially on weekends, when the emergency room could be overwhelmed by such patients. I like emergency surgery very much and it is one of the specialties I considered, however in Venezuela the training program was not fully developed until 2012.
a) Open Abdominal Trauma: Penetrating Wounds Penetrating wounds are those that cause direct damage to the intra-abdominal organs. A gunshot or stab wound can cause a lot of damage to the abdomen, and you’ll know the exact damage in the operating room. Gunshot I have more experience with shooting than with any other type of weapon since in my city, many robbers are armed. The type of patients that I have treated are usually from criminal gangs that come directly to my hospital because, being a university hospital, it has a policy of not letting police forces in. The weekends are the busiest days, with five or more wounded in one day. What Should You Do? The wounds are unpredictable. It all depends on the type of weapon, type of projectile, distance from the attacker, and many other aspects. Each injured patient must be evaluated as a surgical patient until proven otherwise. First of all, remember that the most important thing is to stop the bleeding, if there is any. Wherever you see an area of bleeding, compress it tightly with a towel to try to plug the area. At that point, you need to call for help. If you are the injured person, concentrate on calling 911 and stopping the bleeding. If it is someone else you are treating, find a helper who can continue to pack the wound while you proceed with the physical examination for signs of neurological deficits, such as slurred speech, disorientation, loss of consciousness, and other injuries to the rest of the body. 161
Bobjgalindo, Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0
