U.S. Army Medical Department journal
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Historically, hemorrhage accounts for the primary cause of death on the battlefield in conventional warfare. In addition, hemorrhage was associated with 85% of potentially survivable deaths in the current conflicts, approximately two-thirds of which were from noncompressible injuries. Future combat casualty care strategies suggest the likelihood of long transport times or significant time delays in evacuation of casualties. ⋯ Since the medic has few options for treating noncompressible injuries short of infusing fluid to maintain a blood pressure, the concept of damage control resuscitation was developed to promote hemostatic resuscitation. Damage control resuscitation recommends limiting the amount of crystalloids or colloids infused and using plasma and other blood products in more optimal ratios for the treatment of severe hemorrhage to improve battlefield survival and to reduce or prevent early and late deleterious sequelae. Taken together, these efforts have important implications towards the development of optimal fluid resuscitation strategies for stabilization of the combat casualty.
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Given the recent success of emergency tourniquets, limb exsanguination is no longer the most common cause of preventable death on the battlefield; hemorrhage amenable to truncal tourniquets now is. The purpose of the present study is to discuss the gaps today in battlefield hemorrhage control and candidate solutions in order to stimulate the advancement of prehospital combat casualty care. ⋯ In order to solve the now most common cause of preventable death on the battlefield, junctional hemorrhage from the pelvic area, the planned approach is a systematic review of research, device and model development, and the fielding of a good device with appropriate training and doctrine.
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The US Army and the Ryder Trauma Center (Jackson Memorial Hospital, Miami, Florida) teamed up to provide a training environment (ie, the Army Trauma Training Center) in which forward surgical teams can attend to gain critical teamwork and trauma technical skills to prepare for deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan. The purpose of this study was to gather trainee reactions to the military-civilian collaboration provided at ATTC after deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan. ⋯ The results of our efforts indicate that military-civilian collaborations do in fact work and are beneficial to both military and civilian medical providers. The opportunity to perform as a team in their respective roles, to respond to a variety of actual trauma patients, and access to civilian medical providers were beneficial. As mentioned, such collaborations are not without limitations. The good news is that most of the identified limitations will be corrected to ensure trainees get the best possible experience possible.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Effects of using human patient simulator versus a CD-ROM on learning the management of patients exposed to chemical agents.
Very little prospective, randomized, experimental research exists on the use of simulation as a teaching method, and no studies have compared the effects of 2 strategies of using the Human Patient Simulator (HPS) and a CD-ROM on the management of patients exposed to chemical agents. ⋯ Based on the results of this study, the HPS is more effective than the CD-ROM in teaching nurses about the care of patients exposed to chemical agents.