Hearing Damage Through Blast

Abstract

The rise of explosive terrorism attacks across the world has begotten a large body of blast injuries that were only seen in combat before. Many of the victims close to the explosive source die of multiple severe damages resulting from the primary blast injury. Often, the blast wave can easily heave the victim and throw any object when propagating in overheated air, which is the cause of penetrating and blunt injuries. A study on 3000 explosion victims found that the mortality was 13%, and 30% of the survivors needed hospital care. As opposed to other patients, the patients with blast trauma are badly injured in most cases and require surgical treatment, intensive care, as well as further hospitalization and rehabilitation therapies. Blast injuries are classified as primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary. Primary injury is the direct effect of the shock wave generated during an explosion upon human bodies, and gas-filled organs like the tympanic membrane, pulmonary alveoli, and GI tract are susceptible in general; secondary injury is fragmentation-caused penetrating wound; tertiary injury occurs usually when the victim is crashed into something hard under the impact of the shock wave or hit by falling objects; quaternary injury refers to other explosive injuries, including burns, apnea, radiation, toxins, and psychological trauma. Human ears consist of the outer or external canal, middle ear, and inner ear. Explosions may cause single or combined damages to the ear. The detection and treatment approaches depend on the parts injured and the time of injury.