Mechanisms of injuries caused by antipersonnel land mines

 Antipersonnel Landmines

There are three types of conventional antipersonnel landmines available throughout the world:  static, bounding, and horizontal spray.

Static landmines are small, planted landmines (100–200 g of explosive) that are detonated when stepped on, resulting in two major areas of injury (Fig. 1-3).

• Partial or complete traumatic amputation, most commonly at the midfoot or distal tibia.
• More proximally, debris and other tissue is driven up along fascial planes with tissue stripped from the bone.
• Factors influencing the degree of injury include size and shape of the limb, point of contact with the foot, amount of debris overlying the mine, and the type of footwear.

Bounding mines propel a small explosive device to about 1–2 m of height and then explode, causing multiple small fragment wounds to those standing nearby. These landmine casualties have the highest reported mortality. 

Horizontal spray mines propel fragments in one direction. This land mine can be command-detonated or detonated by tripwire. The US Claymore mine fires about 700 steel spheres. Horizontal spray mines produce multiple small-fragment wounds to those nearby.

Berbagi :