Abstract

The harmful effect of chemical explosions on living beings and the destructive effect on nature are encompassed by the generic term of traumatic injury caused by blast waves. Nowadays, blast injuries are not exclusive to the military field, since in the civilian environment both accidental explosions (domestic and industrial) and intentional explosions (urban terrorism and asymmetric and/or hybrid warfare) have increased considerably. Blast injuries include both physical and psychological trauma. The pathophysiology of tissue damage caused by the blast wave is different from that of conventional civilian trauma (precipitation, traffic accidents, and others). The blast wave produces a multimodal injury (different etiological factors) and multidimensional (several organs affected at the same time); in addition to causing a multitude of injuries in a short period of time, which saturate the health care services; hence it is considered a mass casualty incident. The pathophysiology of blast injuries is the subject of this narrative review. 

Keywords

Explosive agents, Blast wave, Blast injuries, Taxonomy of blast injuries, Mass casualties.