TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2006//
TI  - The scope of wounds encountered in casualties from the global war on terrorism: from the battlefield to the tertiary treatment facility
JO  - Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
A1  - Mazurek, Michael T.
A1  - Ficke, James R.
SP  - S18
EP  - 23
VL  - 14
IS  - 10
N2  - Injuries seen in Operation Iraqi Freedom range from those that can be managed with nonsurgical wound care only to those requiring amputation or multiple bony and soft-tissue procedures for limb salvage. The contamination and soft-tissue injury caused by exploding ordnance requires an aggressive treatment approach. Severe wounds treated near the battlefield (ie, level II) require meticulous surgical d�?�©bridement, early fracture stabilization, broad-spectrum antibiotics, and rapid evacuation. Treatment at a level III combat support hospital involves a greater volume of patients and a longer stay because of the presence of Iraqi national patients. In the authors' experience, most US patients requiring surgical treatment were evacuated to a level IV facility (ie, Landstuhl Regional Medical Center) after one or two surgeries. The basic war surgery principles of aggressive resuscitation, early and thorough debridement, short-duration damage-control surgical procedures, and rapid evacuation were critical in our reduction of wound infection rates to below 7% for all admissions.     <p></p>    <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 1067-151X
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/
ID  - ref1
ER  -