Publication:

A case of accidentally triggered shotgun injury in a hunter

The shotgun is used for bird hunting in rural areas of India. Its accuracy is usually 30 metres. Accidental injuries due to shotgun pellets are not very common. Shotgun has the tendency to disperse into pellets after hitting an object tangentially or after travelling a certain distance. These pellets are made of lead but steel, tungsten and bismuth pellets are also used.  There is no consensus in terms of removing or retaining foreign bodies such as the pellets. These pellets can travel to distant organs that are difficult to access by surgery. As a result surgical intervention in such patients can produce more harm than good. But leaving the pellets can lead to long term side effects like lead poisoning. In this report, we present a 32 years old male who suffered accidental shotgun injury from close range inspite of which the pellets got dispersed all over his body.