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INTRODUCTION: Despite ongoing national efforts to reduce maternal morbidity/mortality, literature on gunshot wounds (GSWs) is limited. We sought to compare demographics, injury severity scores (ISS), and mortality between pregnant and nonpregnant women with GSWs. METHODS: Retrospective review of demographics and injury severity in female GSW victims who presented to three Level 1 Trauma Centers between 2018 and 2020. Shapiro–Wilk tests, Wilcoxon-signed-ranks tests, and chi-squared tests were performed. A value of P <.05 was significant. RESULTS: We analyzed 575 nonpregnant and 27 pregnant women. Mean age (years) was 32 (30.77–33.33) for nonpregnant women and 27 (24.43–30.13) for pregnant women. For nonpregnant women, 283 (49.39%) were White, 249 (43.46%) Black, and 14 (2.44%) Asian. For pregnant women, 11 (40.74%) were White, 13 (48.15%) Black, and 1 (3.70%) Asian. 9 (23.81%) nonpregnant women and 135 (33.33%) pregnant women were Hispanic. Women publicly insured were 120 (21%) nonpregnant and 11 (41%) pregnant ( P <.05). Within a year of shooting, 7% nonpregnant and 27% pregnant women had given birth ( P <.05). For nonpregnant versus pregnant women, mean ISS were 11.86 (10.58–13.16) and 14.38 (7.03–21.67), and mortality was 258 (44.87%) and 11 (40.74%), respectively. CONCLUSION: Demographics, ISS, and mortality did not differ between pregnant and nonpregnant women. Although pregnant women were more likely to be insured, they had similar morbidity/mortality as nonpregnant women. There is a need to determine whether maternal health care access affects outcomes and evaluate methods of primary prevention.
Camarena et al. (Wed,) studied this question.