Pattern of blast injuries. A systematic review: Part 2 - Landmines, unexploded ordnance and terrorism.

Authors

Anne Neubert, Catharina Gaeth, Max Seidelmann, Dan Bieler

Published in

European journal of trauma and emergency surgery : official publication of the European Trauma Society. Volume 52. Issue 1. Jun 18, 2026. Epub Jun 18, 2026.

Abstract

This systematic review analyzes the patterns and distribution of blast injuries from landmine explosions, UXOs and terror attacks including suicide bombing, in civilians and military personnel.
A search was conducted in two databases on 26. March 2025 for observational studies reporting blast injuries in civilian and military populations of all ages. Studies were clustered by explosion typ. A narrative data synthesis was performed. The JBI tool for case series was used.
CRD42023391736.
126 studies were included in the overall systematic review. 45 studies on terror & suicide bombings and 12 studies on landmines & UXOs are analyzed in the present paper. Studies on landmines from 1980 to 2006 included 13,270 individuals (age: 24.0 years (Range 8.2 years - 32.2 years); mainly male (88.9%)) in post-conflict low- and middle-income countries. Lower extremity injuries including amputations were most frequent, followed by eye injuries. Studies on terrorist attacks with a total of 12,518 mainly civilian victims (average age: 33,1 years; 61.6% males) reported on incidents in post-conflict regions and high-income cities mainly from the early 2000s. The injury pattern was multidimensional, with extremity injuries most frequent (28%-30%), including fractures, lacerations, and traumatic amputations (18%-20%).
This Systematic Review Part 2 on landmines and terror attacks found that extremity injuries, including traumatic amputations, are the most frequent and dominate injury. However, the injury pattern varies depending on the explosion mechanism. Landmines primarily cause lower extremity injuries, as well as eye injuries. Terror and suicide explosions exhibit multidimensional injury pattern depending on the distance and location of the explosion.

PMID:
42313144
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 18 Jun 2026.

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