Misc.
Wounds caused by smaller caliber handguns and shot guns.
What are medium velocity penetrating wounds?
Injuries caused by hand held or hand-powered objects such as knives and other edged weapons.
What are low velocity injuries?
The abdominal cavity.
What is the peritoneal cavity?
An abdominal wound in which internal organs or fat protrude.
What is an abdominal evisceration?
An injury in which there is soft tissue damage inside the body but the skin remain intact.
What is closed abdominal injury?
The region below the rib cage and above the hip.
What is flank?
Injuries caused by larger weapons such as high powered rifles, and high powered hand guns.
What are high velocity injuries?
An injury in which there is a break in the surface of the skin or mucus membrane, exposing deeper tissue to potential contamination.
What is an open abdominal injury?
Structures through which materials pass, such as the stomach, small intestines, large intestines, ureters, and urinary bladder.
What are hollow organs?
Contracting the stomach muscles to minimize the pain of abdominal movement; a sign of peritonitis.
What is guarding?
Black tarry stools.
What is melena?
Solid masses of tissue where much of the chemical work of the body takes place (the liver, spleen, pancreas, and kidneys).
What are solid organs?
In pediatric patients these two organs are very large in proportion to the size of the abdominal cavity and are more easily injured.
What are the liver and the spleen?
Blood in the urine.
What is hematuria?
The membrane lining the abdominal cavity, and covering the hollow organs.
What is peritoneum?