Objective: Penetrating neck injuries (PNIs) are serious injuries that affect 5%–10% of trauma patients with the potential for significant morbidity and an estimated mortality of 5%. The goal of this study was to provide valuable insights and information that can be used to improve the quality of care for individuals who have suffered warzone bomb blast and gunshot PNIs.
Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study of patients with PNIs presented at King Khalid Hospital, Najran, Saudi Arabia between March 2020 and September 2022. Demographic information, mechanism of injury, zone of injury, clinical presentation, radiological examinations, presence of vascular injury, and the state of the aero-digestive systems, clinical investigations, intraoperative findings, and post-operative outcomes were analyzed.
Results: A total of Twenty-five patients with PNI were included in the study. All patients were male (100%) with a mean age of 27.36 ± 5.37 years. Most patients (76%) had zone II injury. Bomb blast was the mechanism of injury in 18 patients (72%) and gunshot in 7 cases (28%). There were no statically significant differences between gunshot group and bomb blast group regarding hospital stay (P = 0.2113), mortality (P = 1), morbidity (P = 0.0526), tracheostomy (P = 0.3781), surgical visceral injury (P = 0.0752), and surgical vascular injury (P = 1).
Conclusion: Findings from our study showed that gunshot and bomb blast PNIs have no significant differences regarding the outcome measures, thus suggesting that medical professionals can have a similar approach to management regardless of the mechanism of injury.