ACCURATE ANATOMICAL LOCATION OF WAR INJURIES - ANALYSIS OF THE LEBANON WAR FATAL CASUALTIES AND THE PROPOSITION OF NEW PRINCIPLES FOR THE DESIGN OF MILITARY PERSONAL ARMOR SYSTEM

In this study we present a new approach to the design of the military personal armour system (MPAS). This approach is based on a computerize d analysis of the exact anatomical location of 405 penetrating war inj uries (290 shrapnel and 115 bullet injuries) in 164 soldiers killed in the Lebanon war. All the penetrating injuries (hits) were plotted on a computerized image of the human body. About 90 per cent of all hits were to the front of the body; 55 per cent of all hits were to the lef t side. About 45 per cent of all hits were to the torso, which is slig htly more than the torso's proportion of total body-surface area (36 p er cent). Of all hits to the torso, 64 per cent of the shrapnel hits a nd 73.3 per cent of the bullet hits were limited to the front mid tors o (T4 to T9). The head at the level of the helmet received 9 per cent of all hits, most of which were over the frontal bones (72.4 per cent) . The body part with the greatest density of penetrating injuries was the face, with 22.2 per cent of all penetrating wounds, and in particu lar the midface, from the level of the Zips to the level of the zygoma tic bones, was especially vulnerable, sustaining 10 per cent of all th e penetrating wounds. These findings suggest several possible modifica tions in the standard MPAS: an additional protective device over the f ront mid torso may be incorporated; the face may be protected by a tra nsparent and lightweight face-shield; a horizontal margin added to the standard helmet may protect the tipper face from missiles from above; a chin cover may protect the lower face. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.