Hematological features of mine-blast trauma, accompanied by acubarotrauma, among servicemen - participants in high-intensity combat operations
Authors: Husieva S. A. , Osyodlo G. V. , Goncharov I. P. , Antonyuk O. Ya. , Kotyk Yu. Ya. , Gusev A. V. , Krol М. Е. , Malysh I. V. , Klimenko Ya. M. , Ткаchenko S. V. 
Published: January 2025

During the full-scale war in Ukraine, the number of military personnel sufferinged from mine-blast trauma (MBT) significantly increased. The work aimed to generalise and study the clinical and hematological characteristics of service members who received MBT during combat operations.
Methods. We analysed 443 medical records of inpatient service members who participated in hostilities and received MBT. In 57 (12.86%) patients, injuries in the form of moderate MBTs were detected. The patients were divided into two groups: Group I (n=34) of patients with an uncomplicated course of ear injury; II group – 23 patients with ear injury with a complicated course in combination with mild MBT, including IIa subgroup – ear injury complicated by closed cranial brain injury and brain concussion (n=14) and IIb subgroup - ear injury with perforation of the tympanic membranes (n=9). All patients were fixed on the psychotraumatic circumstances of hostilities. Clinical blood analysis was performed on an automatic haematology analyser ABX Micros ES 60 of the company Horiba ABX. For each group of patients, the arithmetic mean (M), the mean square deviation (Ϭ), and the error of the arithmetic mean (m) were calculated. We studied dispersion, correlation, and regression analyses using the statistical processing package STATISTIKA 10 (Statsoft Inc.).
Results. Among all patients (n=57), 56.14% had leukocytosis, 22.8% had erythrocytosis, and 14.03% had thrombocytosis. In 5.26% of patients, a simultaneous increase in leukocytes and platelets or erythrocytes counts was observed. In 1 group of patients, leukocytosis was observed in 55.8%, erythrocytosis - 17.6%, thrombocytosis - 17.6%. In the IIa group of patients, leukocytosis was found in 50.0%, erythrocytosis – 28.5%), thrombocytosis – 14.3%. In 7.1%, leukocytosis was combined with erythrocytosis. In patients of the IIb group, leukocytosis was detected in 66.7%), erythrocytosis - in 33.3%. In patients with ear injury, a significant increase in the total number of leukocytes and the absolute number of segmented neutrophils was observed compared to patients in the control group. A feature of the peripheral blood of patients with ear injury was a significant increase (p<0,05) in the absolute number of monocytes (0.7±0.36×10⁹/l) compared to the results of the control group (0.29±0.11×10⁹/l).
Conclusions. The received data and data from the literature indicate that MBT should be considered as a problem that goes beyond the scope of damage to the auditory system but most likely as a multiple injury that requires a comprehensive approach to the diagnosis of the consequences of exposure to blast waves in the presence of ear injury/barotrauma, autonomic symptoms, as well as individual signs of trauma brain injury (TBI). Our research shows leukocytosis and an absolute increase in neutrophil and monocyte counts were observed in service members who received aсubarotrauma. Such an increase in granulocytes may indicate the human body's reaction to combat trauma as a stressful situation.