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Penetrating Injury in Terror Attacks

  • Chapter
Essentials of Terror Medicine

The US Department of Defense defines terrorism as “the calculated use of unlawful violence or threat of unlawful violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological.”1 The method used by the attacker will depend on various factors and include conventional as well as nonconventional weapons.

Penetrating injuries may result from stabbing, high- and low-velocity firearms, objects that impale, and shrapnel. Injuries caused by these means have been extensively described in surgical and medical literature. This chapter covers penetrating injuries caused by methods and weapons used commonly by terrorists. Among them, stabbings and suicide bombings result in distinctive patterns of injury that are of particular relevance to terror medicine.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel

    Gidon Almogy MD (Attending Surgeon)

  2. Department of General Surgery, Shock Trauma Unit, Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel

    Avraham I. Rivkind MD, FACS (Associate Professor of Surgery, Director)

Authors
  1. Gidon Almogy MD
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  2. Avraham I. Rivkind MD, FACS
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Public Health, Israel

    Shmuel C. Shapira MD, MPH (Professor of Medical Administration, Director, Deputy Director General, CEO) (Professor of Medical Administration, Director, Deputy Director General, CEO)

  2. Hadassah University Hospital, Israel

    Shmuel C. Shapira MD, MPH (Professor of Medical Administration, Director, Deputy Director General, CEO) (Professor of Medical Administration, Director, Deputy Director General, CEO)

  3. International Center of Terror Medicine, Jerusalem, Israel

    Shmuel C. Shapira MD, MPH (Professor of Medical Administration, Director, Deputy Director General, CEO) (Professor of Medical Administration, Director, Deputy Director General, CEO)

  4. Trauma/Surgical Critical Care, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

    Jeffrey S. Hammond MD, MPH, FACS (Professor of Surgery, Section Chief) (Professor of Surgery, Section Chief)

  5. Department of Political Science and Division of Global Affairs, Rutgers University, Nework, NJ, USA

    Leonard A. Cole PhD, DDS (Adjunct Professor) (Adjunct Professor)

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© 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

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Almogy, G., Rivkind, A.I. (2009). Penetrating Injury in Terror Attacks. In: Shapira, S.C., Hammond, J.S., Cole, L.A. (eds) Essentials of Terror Medicine. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-09412-0_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-09412-0_16

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-387-09411-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-387-09412-0

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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