Blunt Criterion trauma model for head and chest injury risk assessment of cal. 380 R and cal. 22 long blank cartridge actuated gundog retrieval devices.
BACKGROUND
Blunt ballistic impact trauma is a current research topic due to the widespread use of kinetic energy munitions in law enforcement. In the civilian setting, an automatic dummy launcher has recently been identified as source of blunt impact trauma. However, there is no data on the injury risk of conventional dummy launchers. It is the aim of this investigation to predict potential impact injury to the human head and chest on the basis of the Blunt Criterion which is an energy based blunt trauma model to assess vulnerability to blunt weapons, projectile impacts, and behind-armor-exposures.


METHODS
Based on experimentally investigated kinetic parameters, the injury risk of two commercially available gundog retrieval devices (Waidwerk Telebock, Germany; Turner Richards, United Kingdom) was assessed using the Blunt Criterion trauma model for blunt ballistic impact trauma to the head and chest.


RESULTS
Assessing chest impact, the Blunt Criterion values for both shooting devices were higher than the critical Blunt Criterion value of 0.37, which represents a 50% risk of sustaining a thoracic skeletal injury of AIS 2 (moderate injury) or AIS 3 (serious injury). The maximum Blunt Criterion value (1.106) was higher than the Blunt Criterion value corresponding to AIS 4 (severe injury). With regard to the impact injury risk to the head, both devices surpass by far the critical Blunt Criterion value of 1.61, which represents a 50% risk of skull fracture. Highest Blunt Criterion values were measured for the Turner Richards Launcher (2.884) corresponding to a risk of skull fracture of higher than 80%.


CONCLUSIONS
Even though the classification as non-guns by legal authorities might implicate harmlessness, the Blunt Criterion trauma model illustrates the hazardous potential of these shooting devices. The Blunt Criterion trauma model links the laboratory findings to the impact injury patterns of the head and chest that might be expected.
Department of Trauma and Orthopedic Surgery, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-University Greifswald, Germany. matthias.frank@uni-greifswald.de
Matthias
M
Frank
Britta
B
Bockholdt
Dieter
D
Peters
Joern
J
Lange
Rico
R
Grossjohann
Axel
A
Ekkernkamp
Peter
P
Hinz
D004867:Equipment Design; D005389:Firearms; D044709:Forensic Ballistics; D016489:Head Injuries, Closed / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D007700:Kinetics; D035846:Law Enforcement; D008954:Models, Biological; D018570:Risk Assessment; D013898:Thoracic Injuries / Q000209:etiology*; D014949:Wounds, Nonpenetrating / Q000209:etiology*