• Ammar Ghabi, Bernard De Geofroy, Cécile Gorin, Philippe Candoni, Edouard Blomme, and Anne Cecile Ezanno.
• Department of Orthopedic, Trauma and Reconstructive Surgery, Laveran Military Hospital, Marseille 13013, France.
• Mil Med. 2023 Aug 29; 188 (9-10): e2891e2895e2891-e2895.

IntroductionOnboard surface ships like destroyers and frigates, there is ROLE 1, whereas on a three-landing helicopter deck (LHD) and aircraft carrier, there is ROLE 2, with a surgical team. At sea, evacuation takes more time than on any other theater of operation. It also costs more money, so we wanted to analyze how many patients have been maintained onboard, thanks to ROLE 2. Moreover, we wanted to analyze the surgical activities on the LHD MISTRAL ROLE 2.MethodsWe performed a retrospective observational study. We retrospectively analyzed all surgery cases performed on the MISTRAL between January 1, 2011, and June 30, 2022. During this period, there were only 21 months with a surgical team ROLE 2 onboard. We included all consecutive patients who underwent minor or major surgery onboard.ResultsA total of 57 procedures were performed during the period, involving 54 patients (52 males and 2 females) with an average age of 24.4 ± 1.9 years. The most frequent pathology was abscess (pilonidal sinus abscess, axillary abscess, or perineal abscess) (n = 32; 59.2%). Only two Medical Evacuations were conducted because of surgery; the other patients who underwent surgery were maintained onboard.ConclusionsWe have shown that using ROLE 2 aboard the LHD MISTRAL decreases the use of Medical Evacuation. It also helps to perform surgery under better conditions for our sailors. Doing everything to keep sailors onboard seems to be an important point.© The Association of Military Surgeons of the United States 2023. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

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