TITLE:
Fractures by Firearms in Conflict Town
AUTHORS:
Toha Georges Kuyigwa, Akinja Bitum Uwonda, Ona Longombe Ahuka
KEYWORDS:
Fracture by Firearms, Post Conflict, Young Subjects, DRC
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Orthopedics,
Vol.5 No.5,
May
12,
2015
ABSTRACT: For nearly two decades, the eastern Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC) has been plagued by war and abnormal movement of
firearms is commonplace. The consequence of this is the increasing number of
victim patients from gunshot wound at the hospitals. The aim of this study is
to make an assessment of fractures caused by firearms and their management in a
post conflict town. This is a retrospective, descriptive, multicenter study
involving 123 cases with 128 fractures by firearms recorded during a period of
24 months from 1st January 2011 to 31st December 2012. Patients
were recruited from 3 major hospitals in Bukavu town having a unit of fractures
management. One hundred and six (86.9%) patients were males with the modal age
in the ranks from 20 to 40 years old (mean 29.9 years). Seventy-one (57.7%)
were civilians and 52 (42.3%) patients were
soldiers; 86 (78.2%) came from countryside. The reprisal was implicated in 77
(62.6%) cases. In 62.5% of cases, fractures were localized in the lower limbs
and were treated orthopedically in 50% of cases. The gunshot fractures in eastern DRC were mainly concerning the
civilian young people living in the countryside and necessarily affected the
bones of low limb. A study on fracture by firearms should be carried in the
area where people have been wounded. Reducing the flow of gunshot could reduce
the rate of fractures by firearms.