Blasts can cause specific lesions requiring specialized care. After an explosion, primary blast injury (due to the shock wave), secondary blast injury (due to shrapnel) or tertiary blast injury (due to the victim being displaced by the blast) can occur. Secondary and tertiary blasts are much more frequent than primary blasts and can lead to polytrauma. Burns occur in 5% of cases and are termed quaternary blast lesions, which include lesions not due to the above-mentioned mechanisms. Care of secondary and tertiary blasts does not differ to that for any polytrauma. Primary pulmonary blast worsens the prognosis of more serious patients, but seldom requires specific care. Knowledge of both pathophysiologic and injury characteristics would allow better care of seriously burned-blasted patients. We report a case of primary pulmonary blast in a burn patient.
Service de Chirurgie Plastique, Réparatrice et des Brûlés, Hôpital Militaire d'Instruction Mohamed V. Rabat, Maroc.
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Siah
Centre des Brûlés, Département d'Anesthésie Réanimation, Hôpital Édouard Herriot, Lyon, France.
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Emane
Centre des Brûlés, Département d'Anesthésie Réanimation, Hôpital Édouard Herriot, Lyon, France.
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Bertin-Maghit