title: [Thoracic ballistic traumatisms. Wounding agents and wound ballistic].
abstract: The adequate care of thoracic ballistic traumatisms implies a good preliminary knowledge of wounding agents, and of the principles governing lesion-based ballistic, in particular the role played by the meeting with an obstacle which modifies the ballistic behaviour of the projectile, with worsened wounding effects. Authors describe the principal types of involved projectiles and their wound profile applied to the thorax, while stressing the need to treat systematically the wound and not the weapon, and on the importance of the choice of the surgical exploration way of these lesions, which conditions, as from the initial stage, the later choices of the parietal closure and rebuilding methods. The importance of parietal disrepair is therefore an essential decisional factor in the assumption of responsibility and the definition of the therapeutic strategy of these casualties.
authors.affiliation: Service de chirurgie thoracique et générale, hôpital d'instruction des armées Percy, 92, Clamart, France.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Duhamel
authors.forename: P M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Bonnet
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pons
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jourdan
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jancovici
mesh_terms: D005389:Firearms; D006801:Humans; D010347:Patient Care Planning; D019651:Plastic Surgery Procedures / Q000379:methods*; D013898:Thoracic Injuries / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D019616:Thoracic Surgical Procedures / Q000379:methods*; D013909:Thorax / Q000473:pathology; D014857:Warfare; D014948:Wounds, Gunshot / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery*