Body Injuries Caused by Natural Fragments

Background/Objectives: In current conflicts, the most frequent cause of injury among soldiers is associated with impact by natural fragments from explosives; such injuries can also occur in peacetime following terrorist attacks or accidents. Despite this, the wounding patterns of irregularly shaped natural fragments and their irregular wounding mechanisms remain understudied compared to the ballistic characteristics of preformed fragments, standard fragments, or bullets. Methods: The aim of the study was to determine the effects of natural fragments produced by the old 120 mm, new 120 mm, and new 60 mm mortar shells on the human body, and to compare the resulting injuries with those caused by preformed fragments, i.e., non-deformable steel balls. The findings are expected to help healthcare workers and forensic pathologists become more familiar with fragment injuries. Results: For natural fragments, our experiments produced larger temporary cavities than those from preformed fragments. When natural fragments passed through a model of human flat bone before entering a soft tissue model, bone fragments were found in the wound channel along with the natural fragments. In the case of preformed fragments, practically no bone fragments were observed in the wound channel. Conclusions: The conducted research showed that the detonation of mortar ammunition causes deep, extensive, differently shaped temporary cavities, which contain multiple fragments of various shapes and sizes. In contrast, the preformed fragments we used caused less damage than natural fragments. However, because our experimental conditions were not identical, these findings are not a general conclusion; rather, they reflect observations under these specific conditions. The experiments yielded clinical knowledge about natural fragment wounds useful not only for military and emergency medicine but also for forensic medicine, particularly for identifying the causative agent, assessing damage to flat and long bones, reconstructing events, and understanding the role of diagnostic imaging.