The importance of victim’s clothes in gunshot wounds

Objective: Determination of victim’s clothes in gunshot wounds is important due to the necessity of immediate workup in the emergency room as well as the legal aspects of cases. The aim of this study is to evaluate the importance of victim’s clothes in gunshot wounds referred to autopsy hall of legal medicine bureau of Tehran, Iran from ۲۰۱۴ to ۲۰۱۷.Methods: In this analytical comparative study, ۲۰۲ consecutive cadavers of gunshot victims, referred to Tehran Legal Medical Hall from ۲۰۱۴ to ۲۰۱۷, were enrolled and the effect of shotgun and gunshot wound were determined and compared. Data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire. The significance level of the tests was considered as P < ۰.۰۵. Spearman correlation coefficient and chi-square tests were used accordingly. The data were analyzed using SPSS software version ۲۲.Results: In this study, all women were killed by gunshot. Also, all of the ۲۶ people who were killed by shotgun were men. The mean of age only in males was ۳۹-۴۸ years for shotgun, and ۲۹-۳۸ years in both genders for gunshot. Evaluation of their clothes in the emergency room and autopsy hall was helpful in ۷۰% of cases in order to determine shot distance and type of gun (P = ۰.۰۰۰۱). Conversely, we did not observe a significant difference between sex (P = ۰.۰۸۲) and the pattern of death (P = ۰.۲۱۱).Conclusion: Based on the obtained results, it seems that some characteristics of victim’s clothes may be useful to differentiate shotgun and gunshot.

کلیدواژه ها:

Shotgun ، Gunshot ، Victims ، Wounds ، Gunshot firearms