@article{ref1,
title="Vascular injuries in combat-specific soldiers during Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom",
journal="Annals of vascular surgery",
year="2016",
author="Dunn, John C. and Kusnezov, Nicholas and Schoenfeld, Andrew J. and Orr, Justin D. and Cook, Patrick J. and Belmont, Philip J.",
volume="35",
number="",
pages="30-37",
abstract="INTRODUCTION: This study sought to identify vascular injury patterns among combat-specific cavalry scout personnel within the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. <br><br>METHODS: The Armed Forces Medical Examiner System (AFMES) and Joint Theater Trauma Registry (JTTR) were queried for all injuries with the cavalry scout designation from 2003-2011, including those both wounded in action and killed in action. A description of vascular injury, combat causality care statistics, mechanism of injury and demographic data were recorded. <br><br>RESULTS: Sixteen percent (n=111) of the 701 cavalry scouts with a combat wound sustained a vascular injury. Among cavalry scouts sustaining vascular injuries 69% were caused by an explosive mechanism of injury, 63% were Killed in action (KIA) and 29% had a major extremity amputation. Cavalry scout soldiers with a vascular injury were significantly more likely to result from explosion (p<0.0001), be KIA (p<0.0001) and occur in Iraq (p<0.0001). The rate of non-compressible arterial injury was 65%. Wounded in Action (WIA) cavalry scout soldiers with a compressible vascular injury with clear documentation of prehospital tourniquet utilization arrived at a Medical Treatment Facility (MTF) in 67% of cases with a tourniquet in place. Of these transported with a prehospital tourniquet 83% survived. <br><br>CONCLUSION: The high rates of KIA and extremity amputation among cavalry scout soldiers with a vascular injury denotes the lethality of these combat injuries. Uniformly equipping soldiers with battlefield tourniquets and educating them on their prehospital use might improve the survivorship of those servicemembers sustaining a compressible vascular injury.<br><br>Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Inc.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0890-5096",
doi="10.1016/j.avsg.2016.01.040",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.avsg.2016.01.040"
}