Paraclinical, Therapeutic and Evolutive Profiles of Leg Injuries by Firearms in Kisangani in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)

This article presents the paraclinical, therapeutic, and evolutive aspects of firearm leg injuries recorded in referral hospitals in the city of Kisangani, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), over a period of 5 years. Firearm leg injuries are no longer the preserve of wars. Indeed, today, they are frequently found in civilian practice, affecting the most disadvantaged social classes, thus paying the heaviest price. They are responsible for a considerable financial burden for society, amounting to billions of dollars, in addition to the several disabilities of the locomotor system they cause. The objective of this work is to identify the paraclinical, therapeutic, and developmental aspects of traumatic firearm leg injuries in Kisangani. Methods: This was a retrospective study conducted in six referral hospitals in Kisangani. The sample consisted of 117 injured patients with documented firearm leg injuries. Our data collection technique was a document analysis of patient medical records. These data were entered using Excel 2013 and then imported into IBM SPSS version 20 for analysis. Results: From January 2019 to December 2023, we recorded 3572 trauma patients, including 308 patients with ballistic trauma, representing a hospital incidence of 8.62% of cases, and 117 cases of ballistic leg trauma, representing 37.99%. The prevalence was male (76%), representing a sex ratio of 3:1 in favor of males. The 22-32 age group was the most common, representing 49.57% of cases. The average age of our injured was 29.88 years with a standard deviation of 12.28 and extremes minimum 7 years and maximum 78 years. Pupils and students were the majority (29.06%). Most patients came from the Urban-rural commune of Lubunga. The majority of injured were of secondary education level (45%) and 45.30% had been injured on the street. The fight between law enforcement officers and the civilian population caused the largest number of injured (29.1%). The majority of injured were admitted wit