ISLAMABAD, August 15 (online): Between 2005 and 2016, there was an increase in both the number of surgical operations for gunshot wounds and the severity of injuries, according to a new study. The cost of hospitalizations also rose over the same period, but survival rates improved.
The team has tracked the changing frequency and cost of surgery for gunshot wounds, as well as the severity of the injuries.
“We’re now seeing a lot more on the impact of gun violence. In the past, gun violence was never really discussed in the open — it was thought to only affect a certain population. However, now we know that it affects everyone,” says Dr. Peyman Benharash, who led the research.
“In the hopes of trying to reduce it at a systemic level from top to bottom, we’re reporting, as surgeons, how gun violence in the patients that we treat has changed over the last decade.”
Over this period, a total of 322,599 people were admitted with gunshot wounds, of whom 262,098 underwent surgery.
The frequency of operations increased by 18%, from 19,832 in 2005 to 23,480 in 2016. But the data suggest that this increase was largely the result of improved survival rates of individuals prior to hospital admission.
“It appears that patients are reaching surgery more often because of reduced mortality before they get to the hospital,” says Dr. Benharash.
The researchers attribute this to more successful resuscitation and improvements in the process of transporting people to the hospital.
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