RESUMO
This study can be regarded as the first research done solely on autopsy findings in the Iraqi Kurdistan region. It is a prospective study on [106] cadavers who were victims of gunshot injuries [included those who died at the scene and those who died as in-patients] seen in Sulaimani Forensic Department from February 2003 to February 2004. A classical approach by dissection was used to determine cause of death in each victim, with age and sex incidence in order to clarify role and importance of pre-hospital care in reducing death for victims of gunshot injuries. In general, victims were either received from the scene after an average period of two to four [2-4] hours from the event or directly from the hospital. The main causes of death among those received from the scene were severe bleeding due to vascular or organic injuries [account for [53/106] 50. 02%], laceration of brain tissue [47/106] 44.34%, and spinal cord transaction [1/106] 0.94%. While septicemia is the only cause of death among those received from hospital, accounting for [5/106] 4.7%. Deaths occurred from injuries to different anatomical sites of the body: head alone [42/106] 39.62%, head with extremity [6/106] 5.66%, neck alone[1/106] 0.94%,chest alone [16/106] 15.92%, chest with extremity [8/106] 7.54%, abdomen alone [15/106] 14.15%, abdomen with extremity[4/106] 3.77%, thigh alone [11/106] 10.37%, and pelvis alone [3/106] 2.83%. The most significant finding is that life almost always could be preserved in at least [11/106] 10.37% with a single bullet injury to thigh if pre-hospital care was present. Death from gunshot injuries can be regarded as a second major cause of death after road traffic accidents in our region with sex distribution of 86.79% males and 13.21% females. The peak age incidence for females was between 14-44 years and for males 14-54 years, regardless of the type of events, i.e. criminal, suicidal or accidental. Incidence of gunshot injuries are more common in rural areas than urban ones in a ratio of 5.5:1