Dear EJTES Editor,

I am deeply pleased having read in the EJTES August 2014 issue, L. Riddez’s paper on: Wounds of war in the civilian sector: principles of treatment and pitfalls to avoid (Eur J Trauma Emerg Surg (2014) 40:461–468).

In a simple and clear language, the article details and precisely covers every aspect of so-called penetrating war wounds, focusing on what to do and what not to do.

Ballistics, low and high energy wounds, triage, prehospital systems and management, hospital initial assessment, wound follow-up, are all analyzed; direct recommendations and pitfall avoidance on sectorial injuries are addressed, with strict adherence to Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) [1] principles.

My only difference with Dr Riddez, is with his appreciation that this is a short review; this is not so, I believe it is a thorough research paper on management of war wounds, that I recommend should be read by both civilian sector and military war zone surgeons and suggest it could be followed as a future guidelines manual on war wounds, for different scenarios and phases.