Management of gunshot injuries to the head and brain

Craniocerebral gunshot wounds are often devastating. The in-hospital mortality for civilians with penetrating craniocerebral injury is 52-95 percent depending on the proportion of suicide victims in the series. The devastating nature of this lesion is accentuated by the fact that predominantly affects young and healthy patients. The most important predictive factor is the post-resuscitation Glasgow Coma Score (GCS). Early aggressive resuscitation, surgery and vigorous control of intracranial pressure offers the best chance of achieving a satisfactory outcome. In this paper the authors performed a critical literature review about this issue and discuss the clinical aspects and management in these patients.