ABSTRACT

Penetrating gunshot injuries are very common in big cities, lots of them causing death of patients and some more that require early surgical management. Some others may have uncommon injuries or uncommon path of the bullet. Introducing the case report of a 27 year old women, arriving the emergency department at Mexican Red Cross Hospital, Mexico City, with penetrating neck injury by gunshot on left shoulder with no exit hole, X rays were realized (lateral cervical Rx and AP thorax Rx) with no evidence of bullet neither neck or thorax, with evidence in abdominal Rx, CT is realized and paravertebral air is evidenced at C7 level, surgical exploration it’s done in which a cervical esophagus injury is observed, which is treated with primary closure, trauma exploratory laparotomy is performed and the bullet is found in stomach. Esophageal injuries by gunshot are uncommon and may need a high level of suspicion for early diagnosis and management.

KEYWORDS

Esophageal injury, gun shot injury.

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