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Ballistic Injury Biomechanics

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Accidental Injury

Abstract

Penetrating and non-penetrating injuries can result from a ballistic impact. Typical gun shot wounds are the penetrating type. However, when a bullet designed to penetrate hits a piece of personnel protective equipment the result can be a blunt impact injury. Blunt impact injuries can also occur with less-lethal kinetic energy devices. Injuries that result from these high rate impacts are dependent on many factors including: the energy imparted to the body, the surface area that this energy is focused upon as well as the region of the body impacted. Research in the areas of gun shot wounds, direct and indirect impacts to the long bones, behind armor blunt trauma and blunt ballistic impacts will be discussed.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Cynthia Bir Ph.D.

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  1. Cynthia Bir Ph.D.
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Correspondence to Cynthia Bir Ph.D. .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurosurgery, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

    Narayan Yoganandan

  2. School of Medicine, University of California at San Diego, San Diego, USA

    Alan M. Nahum

  3. Tandelta Inc., Ann Arbor, USA

    John W. Melvin

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Bir, C. (2015). Ballistic Injury Biomechanics. In: Yoganandan, N., Nahum, A., Melvin, J. (eds) Accidental Injury. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1732-7_29

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1732-7_29

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-1731-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-1732-7

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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