Military medicine
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The Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Service provides a critical role in the assessment, management, and disposition of the newly injured combatant. This role has been well demonstrated during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Military physiatrists are uniquely suited to support military service members as they maximize their function and either return to duty or transition to civilian life.
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A mysterious new respiratory illness known as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) has become the most perplexing infectious disease to emerge in the 21st century. From March to May 2003, it competed daily with the war in Iraq as the most sensational media event of the moment. U. ⋯ S. Forces Korea (USFK) commander declared a "War on SARS" and directed his medical staff to develop a plan to prevent a SARS outbreak among USFK personnel. This article outlines the USFK campaign plan for the SARS epidemic and documents lessons learned for future outbreaks of highly infectious diseases.
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The goal was to describe the association between post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and in-service sexual harassment in a nationally representative sample of Department of Veterans Affairs PTSD disability applicants. ⋯ Sexual harassment significantly contributed to female veterans' PTSD symptoms; its contribution to men's symptoms was unclear. We discuss mechanisms through which sexual harassment might affect PTSD symptom severity, including the possibility that sexual harassment sometimes meets the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, definition of a criterion A stressor.
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The objective of this magnetic resonance imaging study was to evaluate the role of degenerative changes, developmental spinal stenosis, and compression of spinal nerve roots in chronic low back (CLBP) and radicular pain in Finnish conscripts. The degree of degeneration, protrusion, and herniation of the intervertebral discs and stenosis of the nerve root canals was evaluated, and the midsagittal diameter and cross-sectional area of the lumbar vertebrae canal were measured in 108 conscripts with CLBP and 90 asymptomatic controls. ⋯ Multifactorial analysis of the magnetic resonance imaging findings provided a total explanatory rate of only 33%. Narrowing of the vertebral canal in the anteroposterior direction was more likely to produce CLBP and radiating pain than intervertebral disc degeneration or narrowing of the intervertebral nerve root canals.