Trauma“

Traumatology

means science

of wounds &injuries.

• A wound is a disruption of the continuity of tissues produced by external mechanical force.

• The term injury is used synonymously with wound, but can have a wider meaning and encompass not only damage produced by physical force, but also damage produced by heat, cold, chemicals, electricity and radiation.

• The English word ‘injury’ derives from the Latinword ‘injuria’ which literally means not lawful.

• The term lesion originally meant an injury but has now come to be more widely applied to include any area of injury, disease, or local degeneration in a tissue causing a change in its function or structure.

• Therefore use of the terms injury or wound imply damage from unnatural causes, while the use of the term lesion is non-committal on whether the cause of the damage was natural disease or not.

• Wounds, or injuries, are generally classified according to their cause as blunt force injuries, sharp force injuries, gunshot injuries, and a miscellany of others, including for example burns. This is the classification followed in this text, and each group of injuries is discussed in successive chapters. A blunt force injury is any bodily damage resulting from forceful contact between the body and a blunt object.

• The forceful contact most commonly involves movement and impact, with the resulting transfer of kinetic energy. Either the moving object strikes the body as in a blow, or the moving body strikes an unyielding object as in a fall. Less often the physical force is applied more slowly by the pressure of crushing, squeezing, or pinching. Crushing or scraping of the skin produces abrasions (grazes).

Bruises occur when the elastic limit, the tolerance, of subcutaneous blood vessels is exceeded so that they tear and bleed. Greater forces are needed to tear the skin to produce lacerations. These three blunt force injuries – abrasions, bruises, and lacerations – may occur singly or together in any combination.

Types

General Traumatology

DefinitionsMechanism of wound Production Classification of woundsGeneral Feature of woundsLaws related to wounds

TRUMATOLOGYTrauma:

Diseased condition of the body produced by external violence. Also means wound, injury, hurt.

Logos: Science

Traumatology: Means science of wound or Injuries.

Special Traumatology

Firearm injuriesRegional InjuriesElectrocution & burns Sexual Assaults etc

IMPORTANT DEFINITIONSWound:

(Medical term) “Damage to living tissue”

Injury: (Legal term) deified in section 44 P.P.C. “The

word injury denotes any harm whatever illegally caused to any person in body, mind reputation or property”.

HURT:(Legal term) defined in See 332 of P.P.C. “Causing

of pain, harm, disease, infirmity, injury or impairing, dismembering any organ of the body or part thereof without causing death”.

CLASSIFICATION OF WOUNDS/INJURIES

A) MEDICAL CLASSIFICATION:1) Closed wounds:

Where whole thickness of skin has not gone e.g. bruise, superficial burns, abrasions.

2) Open wounds: Where whole thickness of skin had gone e.g. lacerations, cuts, stab wounds, deep burns, firearm wound.

B) LEGAL CLASSIFICAITON:

i) Itlaf-i-udwii) Itlaf-i-Salahiyyat-i-udwiii) Shajjah iv) Jurhv) All kinds of other hurts

C)CLASSIFICATION ON BASIS OF CAUSATIVE AGENT:

1) Blunt weapon injuries e.g. bruises, abrasions, lacerations

2) Sharp edged weapon injuries e.g. incised

wounds/cuts3) Pointed weapon injuries e.g. stab

wounds4) Firearm injuries5) Thermal injuries 6) Electrical injuries7) Chemical injuries8) Radiation injuries9) Explosion injuries

D) CLASSIFICATION ON BASIS OF MOTIVATION OF INFLICTION

1)Homicidal 2)Suicidal 3)Accidental4)Self inflicted 5) Defense wounds