Orthopedic Ballistic Trauma

Abstract

In ballistic science, a bullet’s journey may be divided into three stages (Kneubuehl BP. Wound ballistics: basics and applications. Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer; 2011): initial stage, from firing to muzzle exit, intermediate stage, when the bullet is “in flight,” and terminal stage, from impact onwards. Understanding this later stage is important to understanding the mechanism of injury. All modern military weapons have a rifled barrel which imparts a rotational movement around the longitudinal axis of the bullet termed spinning. When the bullet leaves the barrel, other movements are present. Theoretically, they all are parasitic movements which decrease the accuracy of the projectile, but increase the wounding capacity after impact through oscillations (yawing), precession (wobbling), and nutation (rosette pattern). These parasitic movements increase the destabilization characteristics of a jacketed bullet inside the target, and this is crucial to the actual transfer of energy. The precise description of what actually happens between impact and final arrest of the bullet has been a matter for debate for a long time, almost as long as the history of firearms itself. In the early 80s, Fackler, from the US Army, developed the concept of “wound profile.”