Principles of ballistics applicable to the treatment of gunshot wounds

Abstract

Ballistics is the science of the motion of a projectile through the barrel of a firearm (internal ballistics), during its subsequent flight (external ballistics), and during its final complicated motion after it strikes a target (terminal ballistics). Wound ballistics is a special case of terminal ballistics. Although wound ballistics is at best sets of approximations, its principles enter usefully into an evaluation of a gunshot wound and its treatment. A special consideration in these cases is their medicolegal aspects. At a minimum, the medical team receiving the patient should exert care not to destroy the clothing and in particular to cut around and not through bullet holes, to turn over to law enforcement officials any metallic foreign body recovered from the patient, and to describe precisely, or even to photograph, any entrance or exit wounds.