Non-fatal gunshot wounds among military police in Rio de Janeiro: health as a field of emergency against the naturalization of violence

This article discusses health problems due to firearm injuries suffered on duty military police officers in the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro (RJ). Medical records analysis was conducted referring to military police officers who were treated at the Military Police's Central Hospital (MPCH) due to gunshot wounds from June 2015 to December 2017 according to professional profile, the characteristics of the event and the lesion, the spatial distribution of the incidents involving gunshot wounds, and the healthcare units involved in their care. Firearms injured four hundred seventy-five military police officers: 98.3% were male, 77.3% were in service, 97.9% were soldier personnel. As to the anatomical location of the wounds, the most affected regions were: lower (41.1%) and superior (33.1%) limbs, the head neck-face region (23.5%), and thorax-abdomen (3%). The areas in the metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro with the highest occurrence of firearm morbidity are program areas 3 and 1 and the Baixada Fluminense. There is a correlation between police morbidity rates due to firearm injuries in the municipalities of the metropolitan region and demographic density (p = 0.024).