A high-energy injury to a limb not only tears, disrupts, and causes tissue loss but often conceals an occult crushed muscle tissue mass, especially when a powerful blast force has acted on the wound. In this open crush wound (OCW) it is difficult to define the border between living and dead muscle. Another type of crush injury of a limb is the closed crush, typical of casualties crushed under masonry, vehicles, or victims lying unconscious without movement for many hours (mechanical muscle-crush injury – MMCI).
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Reis, N.D., Better, O.S. (2011). Crush Injury of the Limbs and Acute Mechanical Muscle-Crush Compartment Syndrome. In: Lerner, A., Soudry, M. (eds) Armed Conflict Injuries to the Extremities. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-16155-1_4
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