Military medicine
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Evaluation of the psychological state of a group of 119 Croatian disabled war veterans who suffered grave traumatic war experiences during the war in Croatia (1991-1992). ⋯ The established change in the psychological profile of disabled Croatian war veterans was lower than expected. However, because of their great vulnerability, it is necessary to increase efforts to secure their complete psychosocial recovery.
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Patients who sustain gunshot injuries to the head and neck face heavy tissue damage and eventually life-threatening conditions. A very significant factor that determines the degree of injury is the course and extent of the missile track. ⋯ The missile entrance or exist wound may be out of sight in some injuries, and often it is difficult to predict the severity of the injury in the chaotic circumstances of the battlefield. We studied the wound ballistics in five soldiers who suffered penetrating cranial and cervical firearm injuries.
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Comparative Study
Performance of the universal portable anesthesia complete vaporizer with mechanical ventilation in both drawover and pushover configurations.
Currently, a mechanical ventilator that can be adapted to the Universal Portable Anesthesia Complete (UPAC) vaporizer and anesthetic delivery system does not exist. The need for the anesthetist to concentrate on drug delivery and fluid resuscitation for the combat casualty in the field setting provides an expedient for the adaptation of a ventilator to the UPAC system. ⋯ The results of the comparison between the two ventilators indicated that there was no significant difference in vaporizer output between drawover and pushover configurations. The data indicated that vaporizer output could be reliably predicted in either mode and was correlated with tidal volume and respiratory rate.
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Comparative Study
Clinical evaluation of pushover mechanical ventilation with the Ohmeda Universal Portable Anesthesia Complete vaporizer.
Previous studies have not demonstrated the usefulness of a mechanical ventilator with the Universal Portable Anesthesia Complete (UPAC) field anesthesia delivery system in a pushover mode. This study demonstrated that the Lifecare PLV-100 ventilator can function effectively in a practical pushover configuration with the UPAC vaporizer. By comparison, vaporizer output followed the patterns of documented concentration curves for isoflurane at a given dial setting and minute ventilation. Measured airway pressures in the breathing circuit were within physiological parameters.