Comparison of injuries due to lethal weapons during and after civil strife in Sri Lanka: A medico-legal study

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: “Injuries due to lethal weapons” has emerged as a subject of public discussion in Sri Lanka. This study was conducted to describe the nature and characteristics of injuries due to lethal weapons during civil strife and to compare those with injuries after civil strife. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted on patients reported with injuries caused by lethal weapons from 2004 to 2014. Periods before and after May 19, 2009 were considered as during and after civil strife periods, respectively. A total of 21,210 medico-legal examination forms were studied. RESULTS: There were 358 (1.7%) injuries caused by lethal weapons. Of them, 41% (n = 148) were during and 59% (n = 210) were after the civil strife. During civil strife, 63% occurred during daytime (P < 0.05). Types of lethal weapons that caused injuries were sharp weapons (n = 282), explosives (n = 49), and firearms (n = 27). Of them, 32% of during and 01% of after civil strife were explosive injuries (P < 0.01). Regarding severity, 73% of during and 57% of after civil strife injuries were severe (P < 0.05). During civil strife, 34% injuries were in lower limbs (P < 0.01) and after civil strife, 37% were in upper limbs (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The presence of many similarities indicated that both groups learnt their basis in a society that breeds violence. During civil strife, more injuries occurred during daytime, to lower limbs by explosive weapons and after the civil strife during nighttime, to upper limbs by nonexplosive weapons. Nonexplosive lethal weapon use after civil strife needs further investigation to develop evidence-based interventions.