PEACE TIME BULLET WOUNDS OF THE ABDOMEN

Abstract

This study, begun a number of years ago,¹ deals with the results of treatment in the Cook County Hospital, Chicago, of patients with bullet wounds of the abdomen (table 3) during the period from 1911 to 1924, when one of us (E. R. L.) made postmortem examinations in the morgue of that hospital for the coroner of Cook County. Although a decade has passed, it seems desirable to record these results. The number of patients, 343, is large; opportunity is given to compare the surgical work done in the period covered with that performed in the same hospital during subsequent years; the number of recoveries may be contrasted with those attained in other places, and, finally, because the theme is "peace time wounds" sustained in civil life, additional information is made available for reviewing the numerous differences between such wounds and wounds of the abdomen caused by missiles used