How are war wounds treated?
The treatment of war wounds is an ancient art, constantly refined to reflect improvements in weapons technology, transportation, antiseptic practices, and surgical techniques. Throughout most of the history of warfare, more soldiers died from disease than combat wounds,...
What is the pathophysiology of firearms related wounds?
War wounds caused by firearms, represent damage to the body, whose features are extensive destruction of the tissue, primary contamination with polymorphic bacterial flora and altered reactivity of the organism (1).
What is the history of military wound care?
The 16th century French military surgeon Ambroise Paré was one of the first to specialise in military wounds. He was particularly innovative in developing new surgical techniques and equipment. Bullets and shrapnel added a new dimension to infection.
How were wounds treated in the 18th century?
Through the 18th century, the treatment of wounds had advanced little since Paré, until two innovations by Jean Petit (1674–1750). Petit introduced the two-stage circular cut, in which the skin was transected distal to the planned level of amputation and pulled up.
What is war triage?
Triage is the dynamic process of sorting casualties to identify the priority of treatment and evacuation of the wounded, given the limitations of the current situation, the mission, and available resources (time, equipment, supplies, personnel, and evacuation capabilities).
How were wounds treated during the Civil War?
Here doctors removed bullets, cleaned and bandaged wounds, and performed amputations as necessary. Nearly all surgeries, North and South, were performed with anesthesia, either chloroform or ether, although chloroform was preferred.
How did they treat wounds in ww1?
Simple irrigation of wounds with water or saline helps to clean wounds, and the use of hypochlorite further reduces bacteria. Many of the wounds seen in the war were heavily contaminated with dirt from the trenches and battlefield, so these methods were widely used.
How were wounds treated in the Revolutionary war?
Doctors used opiates as painkillers, but anesthetics had not been invented yet. Other common medicines included mercury compounds, lavender spirits, and cream of tartar.
What was the medical care during the Civil War?
Medications that were helpful included quinine for malaria, morphine, chloroform, and ether, as well as paregoric. Many others were harmful. Fowler's solution was used to treat fevers and contained arsenic. Calomel (mercurous chloride) was used for diarrhea.
What is a war wound?
those people who have been injured or wounded by war.
What were medics called in WW1?
immunesThey had medical corpsmen, called immunes. They practiced front-line treatment, with evacuation through well-organized supply and logistics chains. Because of their improved sanitation, their armies suffered somewhat less from the epidemics which swept military camps.
What was the medical treatment like in WW1?
Other medications included cocaine hydrochloride—used as a local anesthetic—and chloroform—used as both a general anesthetic in surgeries and a sedative. For pain, some of the common painkillers or analgesics used at the time included sodium salicylate, elixir of opium or opii tinctura camphorata, and morphine sulfate.
What did medics do in the war?
They were trained to stop bleeding, apply dressings, sprinkle sulfa powder on wounds as an antiseptic, and to administer morphine as a sedative. More elaborate medical treatment would wait.
What did colonial doctors do?
A colonial "doctor" was often physician/apothecary/surgeon — three professions in England. Housewives and clergymen doubled as doctors. Treatment was expensive. For illnesses, bloodletting or purges and herbal remedies might be prescribed.
What treatment did injured soldiers receive?
The major areas of emphasis are medical evacuation and organization; wounds and wound management; surgical technique and technology, with a particular focus on amputation; infection and antibiotics; and blood transfusion.
Who could become a doctor during the Revolutionary War?
Anyone could become a doctor during the Revolutionary War. Some people apprenticed at the early age of 15. They began practicing medicine after only a couple years of apprenticing with another doctor.
What is an example of sabre wounds?
Blast injuries from artillery shells and cannons shattered limbs, tore open bodies, and smashed skulls. On the left is an example of sabre wounds, on the right an arm blown off by cannon fire. By Charles Bell, Battle of Waterloo.
What was the first global war?
The First World War, as the name suggests, was the first global war: a demonstration of the strength and killing power of modern empires. It was the first 'Total War', one in which all of the resources of society—industrial, economic, political, social and medical—were directed to the war effort.
What was the impact of the First World War on plastic surgery?
The First World War saw a significant increase in head and facial injuries resulting from trench warfare. The experience surgeons gained from treating such injuries contributed to the emergence of plastic surgery as a new medical specialism.
What was the impact of bullets and shrapnel on the military?
Bullets and shrapnel added a new dimension to infection. They carried fragments of clothing and debris deep into the body to become the seats of infection —until the arrival of antibiotics, this was a major cause of death in military hospitals.
Why did the surgeon amputation?
Ultimately, amputation was the only way to halt the spread of life-threatening infections such as gangrene .
When was kevlar body armor invented?
These, weapons, were difficult to detect until the victim was right on top of the device. Kevlar body armour, developed in the 1970s, helped to protect the abdomen and chest, spine, head and groin and minimise damage from such devices. Wikimedia Commons.
What was the first wound management?
Perhaps the earliest literary account of wound management comes from Homer’s epic poem The Iliad (circa 700 BCE), based on events of the Trojan War half a millennium earlier [ 70 ]. Combat during this period was chaotic, as opposing formations merged into hand-to-hand combat with edged weapons resulting in heavy casualties. The accounts depict surgeons as skilled and professional physicians who expertly treated wartime trauma. In the fourth book of The Iliad, surgeon Makaon treated King Menelaus of Sparta, who had sustained an arrow wound to the abdomen, by extracting the arrow, sucking blood out of the wound to remove poison [ 76 ], and applying a salve [ 70 ]. In the eleventh book, Achilles’ friend Patroclus extracted an arrow from King Eurypylus of Thessaly, when he “cut out with a knife the bitter, sharp arrow from his thigh, and washed the black blood from it with warm water” [ 70 ], which may have been the first record of débridement and soft tissue management (Appendix 2 ).
Why was infection control not considered an issue in the 18th century?
In the 18th century, infection control was not considered an issue, because physicians assumed disease was caused by an imbalance of humors rather than microbes. However, surgeon Charles Gillman, after accidentally spilling rum on the badly infected hand of a soldier wounded in the Battle of Harlem (1776), noted the infection resolved rapidly, an observation consistent with Hippocrates’ recommendation to use wine to irrigate a wound [ 116 ]. Yet, the practice was never adopted by the Continental surgeons.
When was amputation first performed?
The Roman Celsus (circa 3–64 CE) later observed the border between healthy and sick tissue was the proper demarcation line [ 84 ]. Before the invention of gunpowder in the 14th century, wounds were caused by cutting, stabbing, and blunt force, and the injured often lived without major surgical intervention. As musculoskeletal injuries from shot and cannon grew more complex, surgeons gained greater experience with the art of amputation.
Who was the first person to describe blood types?
The Austrian Karl Landsteiner (1868–1943) and coworkers described blood types A, B, and O in 1901, and the AB blood group in 1902 [ 149 ]. Subsequent blood typing greatly reduced the potential complications of blood transfusion. Expanded transfusion offered the promise of preventing many fatalities of war caused by or complicated by blood loss. It also posed medical and logistic challenges to military caregivers.
