Combat Research: 1 in 5 Suffer Head and Neck Wounds
Harry Hope
From Forbes, 9/24/04:
http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/health/feeds/hscout/2004/09/24/hscout521347.html
Combat Research: 1 in 5 Suffer Head and Neck Wounds
By E.J. Mundell
HealthDay Reporter
FRIDAY, Sept. 24 (HealthDayNews) --
A significant percentage of U.S. soldiers wounded in Iraq and
Afghanistan are suffering potentially lethal wounds to the head and
neck, areas not covered by today's improved body armor.
A unique report on combat injuries found that, in a 14-month period,
one of every five soldiers injured in battle and airlifted to an
American military hospital in Germany suffered from this type of
injury.
The finding, presented this week by a U.S. military surgeon at a
conference in New York City, led the research team to urge that more
head-and-neck specialists be deployed closer to the front, advice that
the U.S. Air Force has just begun following.
"I think that any time you can bring the surgeons that definitively
treat those types of injuries closer to the patient, seeing them in a
more timely manner, it's always better for the patient," said study
co-author Lt. Col. Michael S. Xydakis, an ear-nose-and-throat
specialist and head-and-neck surgeon with the U.S. Air Force medical
corps.
Xydakis, 40, spent the first year of the Iraqi conflict working with
incoming wounded at the U.S. military's Landstuhl Regional Medical
Center, part of Ramstein Air Force Base in southwestern Germany.
Landstuhl is the facility receiving the majority of casualties from
combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Working with two information specialists and Dr. John Casler, chief of
head and neck surgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in
Washington, Xydakis used a computerized patient tracking system to
categorize the nature of injuries to more than 11,000 wounded soldiers
who were admitted to Landstuhl between Jan. 1, 2003, and March 19,
2004.
"This operation we have ongoing right now in Iraq is the first
sustained use of ground combat since Vietnam," Xydakis said.
Keeping in mind changes in armor and tactics, his team sought to
determine patterns of injury in troops today, and whether medical
personnel were being properly deployed to respond to the types and
numbers of casualties.
"What the military really cares about is 'Is the stuff that we're
providing our troops really effective?" he explained.
Xydakis' team of researchers report that 16 percent of all the 11,287
soldiers airlifted from Iraq or Afghanistan and cared for at Landstuhl
in that 14-month period were treated for injuries to the face, neck
and throat below the helmet line.
But when the researchers focused on troops classified as having
suffered "battle injuries," the number of patients with at least one
type of head and neck trauma rose to 21 percent.
The study ended in March, but Xydakis suspects injury patterns may
have changed somewhat since then, due to the evolving nature of the
Iraqi resistance.
"My sense is that you're going to see more blast injuries and less
penetrating injuries," he said.
He presented the findings Sept. 20 at the annual meeting of the
American Academy of Otolaryngology -- Head and Neck Surgery.
Before the advent of a super-tough synthetic fiber called Kevlar, most
combat deaths and injuries stemmed from wounds to the chest or skull,
Xydakis said.
However, lightweight Kevlar resists penetration by nearly all
high-velocity bullets and shrapnel.
It is now the main component of all chest, back armor and helmets worn
by American troops today.
Xydakis said he's not sure if enemy combatants are aiming for these
areas in the knowledge that the chest and upper head are nearly
invulnerable due to armor.
However, he said, "you have a lot of emerging tactics now, because
they know that it is very hard to put down an American soldier because
of what they are wearing."
Furthermore, "if a soldier is crouched down in the shooting position,
that's the only exposed area."
Whatever the enemy's intent, even nonfatal injuries in this vulnerable
area can have devastating results, including shattered jaws, impaired
breathing, brain damage and blindness, Xydakis noted.
He said head and neck injuries occurring on the battlefield are
generally more severe than those he encountered in civilian patients
during his residency in Minnesota.
"The weapons are so much more powerful, blast injuries aren't common
in the civilian world -- it's clearly different," he said.
"There's a spectrum -- you've got massive, mutilating injuries."
The relative youth of patients and the extent of their injuries can be
tough to deal with, even for a military surgeon with a long experience
of caring for wounded.
"It tugs on the heartstrings," Xydakis said.
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Harry
Hubert Humphrey
Serious Sam
>1 in 5 Suffer Head and Neck Wounds
Explains your moronic posts.