Identical fracture patterns in combat vehicle blast injuries due to improvised explosive devices; a case series.
BACKGROUND
In November 2008, a surgical team from the Red Cross Hospital Beverwijk, the Netherlands, was deployed in Afghanistan for three months to attend in the army hospital of Kandahar.During their stay, four incidents of armored personnel carriers encountering an improvised explosive device were assessed. In each incident, two soldiers were involved, whose injuries were strikingly similar.


METHODS
The described cases comprise paired thoracic vertebral fractures, radial neck fractures, calcaneal fractures and talar fractures. Moreover, the different types of blast injury are mentioned and related to the injuries described in our series. Acknowledging the different blast mechanisms is important for understanding possible injury patterns.


CONCLUSIONS
From this case series, as well as the existing literature on injury patterns caused by blast injuries, it seems appropriate to pay extra attention to bodily areas that were injured in other occupants of the same vehicle. Obviously, the additional surveillance for specific injuries should be complementary to the regular trauma work-up (e.g., ATLS).
Department of Surgery/ Traumatology, Red Cross Hospital Beverwijk, Beverwijk, The Netherlands.
Joris
J
Commandeur
Robert Jan
RJ
Derksen
Damian
D
Macdonald
Roelf
R
Breederveld
D015998:Abbreviated Injury Scale; D000328:Adult; D000346:Afghanistan; D001753:Blast Injuries / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000209:etiology*; D050723:Fractures, Bone / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008889:Military Personnel; D018986:Motor Vehicles; D009104:Multiple Trauma / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000209:etiology; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed