The Medical Impacts of Thermobaric Weapons: A Scoping Review
Abstract
Introduction: Thermobaric weapons (TW) are a class of explosive weapons designed to use oxygen from the surrounding environment to deliver blasts generating intense pressure and heat, penetrating structures more efficiently than conventional weapons. Despite the increasing use of TW in conflicts globally, no comprehensive evaluation of the literature on TW has been published to date. This review aims to assess current evidence on the medical Impacts of TW.
Materials and methods: A scoping review of the literature was conducted in accordance with PRISMA Scoping Review (PRISMA-ScR) methodology. Structured searches of databases including Web of Science, Embase, PubMed, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Global Index Medicus, Military and Government Collection, Global Health, SciELO, and Google Scholar as well as grey literature sources were performed to identify records that described injuries related to TW use.
Results: The search identified 7,365 records. After title-abstract, full text screening and exclusion of duplicative data, 16 eligible reports, including 3 grey literature reports, were included in analysis. Represented regions included Eastern Europe, the Middle East, East Africa, and Southeast Asia. Of the reports, 8 were narrative reviews, 3 were case series, one was a case control, one was a modelling study, and 3 were grey literature reports. Four reports were conducted in high-resource settings in North America and Europe, although…
Read the paper
Related studies
- Understanding the factors influencing fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda J.E. Smith) damage in African smallholder maize fields and quantifying its impact on yield. A case study in Eastern Zimbabwe
- Alarming situation of emerging H5 and H7 avian influenza and effective control strategies
- Livestock and food security: vulnerability to population growth and climate change
- Atmosphere–ocean oxygen and productivity dynamics during early animal radiations
- Characterization of the global distribution and diversified plasmid reservoirs of the colistin resistance gene mcr-9
- The global seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in pigs: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Go deeper in Evidence Hub
Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.