Military medicine
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Airway compromise is the second leading cause of potentially survivable death on the battlefield. The purpose of this study was to better understand wartime prehospital airway patients. ⋯ In the R2D, airway intervention was associated with increased odds of mortality, although this was not statistically significant. Other patients had higher odds of undergoing an airway intervention than U.S. military. Awareness of these findings will facilitate training and equipment for future management of prehospital/prolonged field care airway interventions.
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Attempting to expedite delivery of care to wounded war fighters, this study aimed to quantify the ability of medical and surgical teams to perform lifesaving damage control and resuscitation procedures aboard nontraditional US Navy Vessels on high seas. Specifically, it looked at the ability of the teams to perform procedures in shipboard operating and emergency rooms by analyzing motion of personnel during the procedures. ⋯ This shows that the working conditions aboard the US Naval Ship Brunswick were satisfactory for the assigned tasks, indicating that these medical operations may be feasible aboard nontraditional US Navy vessels.
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Despite efforts in prevention, suicide rates in the US military remain unchanged. This article describes the development of a tool for leaders to identify and mitigate suicide risk factors. ⋯ This study provides initial psychometric data on a tool that prescribes concrete responses to mitigate risk. The LSRAT may be a valid and feasible tool to assist front-line commanders in identifying potential area's risk mitigation. Synchronization efforts between commanders, clinicians, and support services are crucial to ensure effective intervention to prevent suicide behavior.
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Malaria is classified as a top-tier infectious disease threat associated with a high risk for mortality among U. S. service members deployed overseas. As malarial drug resistance degrades the efficacy of current gold standard drugs for malarial prophylaxis and treatment, it is vitally important to maintain a robust drug pipeline to discover and develop improved, next-generation antimalarial prevention and treatment tools. ⋯ Partnerships with industry are a crucial part of USAMMDA's medical product development strategy, by leveraging their drug development experience and manufacturing capabilities to achieve licensure and commercial availability. Additionally, these partnerships capitalize on expertise in the commercial market and help ensure that USAMMDA successfully translates a Department of Defense capability gap into a commercially available product. This article will highlight the strategies used to move this critical antimalarial drug through the development pipeline.
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While debate persists over how to best prevent or treat amputation neuromas, the more pressing question of how to best marry residual nerves to state-of-the-art robotic prostheses for naturalistic control of a replacement limb has come to the fore. One potential solution involves the transposition of terminal nerve ends into the medullary canal of long bones, creating the neural interface within the bone. Nerve transposition into bone is a long-practiced, clinically relevant treatment for painful neuromas. Despite neuropathic pain relief, the physiological capacity of transposed nerves to conduct motor and sensory signals required for prosthesis control remains unknown. This pilot study addresses the hypotheses that (1) bone provides stability to transposed nerves and (2) nerves transposed into bone remain physiologically active, as they relate to the creation of an osseointegrated neural interface. ⋯ Transposed nerves retain a degree of physiological function suitable for creating an osseointegrated neural interface.