Epidemiology of Firearm Weapons Injuries at District Head Quarterteaching Hospital, Gujranwala”

Objective:Firearm weapons injuries are an important component of the medico legal examination. The current study was planned to know the epidemiology of firearm weapons injuries, to updatethe junior MedicolegalExaminersabout the appropriate recognition, interpretation and investigationof firearmweaponsinjuries.Material and method:The present study comprised offifty seven cases offirearm weapons injuries presented inTrauma Centreof D.H.Q/Teaching Hospital,Gujranwala, during the year 2012 including 50 Males(80.72 %)and07 Females(12.28 %).Their medico legalrecord wasreviewed retrospectively;Demographicprofile, includingage and sex distributionwas recorded. Firearmweaponsinjuries weredescribed according to distance, manner of infliction of injury and area of distribution.Results:The age ranged from 1to above 60 years. The maximum number22 (38.6%) were of agebetween 21-30 years (Table 1)out of 57 cases, 50 (87.72%) were male and 07 (12.28%) were female (Table 2).Cases of far distance firewere47 (82.46%),near distance firewere6(10.52%) and loose contact fire were4 (7.02%)(Table 3).Regarding manner,55 (96.49%)werehomicidal and 2 (3.51%) were by friendly hand (Table 4).Urban cases were 45 (78.95%) and ruralwere12 (21.05%)(Table 5).Conclusion:Most of firearm weapons injury cases at District Head Quarter Teaching Hospital Gujranwala are of distant fire and are homicidal. Most cases are from urban areas.