Cavitation and Temporary Cavity: Semantic Ambiguity of Wrong Analogies in Wound Ballistics

Modern studies in the area of wound ballistics made it possible to establish main damaging factors of a shot, the formation mechanism of a gunshot wound, including temporary cavity dynamics resulting from the kinetic energy transfer from a bullet to biological tissues. However, there is an incorrect use of the term “cavitation” in the scientific literature when describing these processes, which creates terminological ambivalence. The strict definition of cavitation, adopted in hydrodynamics, refers to the phenomenon of the formation of cavities (bubbles) in a liquid medium with a local decrease in pressure below the saturation point caused by high-speed motion of a solid. This physical process is fundamentally different from the mechanism of a temporary cavity formation in a gunshot wound where the main role is played by inertial deformations of tissues rather than the phase transitions of fluid. The use of one term to define heterogeneous phenomena contradicts the principles of scientific terminology, increasing the risk of incorrect data interpretation both in theoretical models and in the applied research. The article provides a comparative analysis of the physical mechanisms underlying cavitation (hydrodynamic context) and the formation of temporary cavities in a gunshot wound. It also systematizes the terminological errors in scientific publications that led to a distorted understanding of the gunshot wound mechanics. The author suggests to exclude using the term «cavitation» in the context of wound ballistics.

This would minimize semantic errors, increase the accuracy of interdisciplinary studies and eliminate methodological contradictions, since terminological rigor is crucial for ensuring reproducibility of examination results and effective interdisciplinary knowledge integration.

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