Battlefield medicine
Encyclopedia
Soldier
A soldier is a member of the land component of national armed forces; whereas a soldier hired for service in a foreign army would be termed a mercenary...
s in or near an area of combat. Civilian medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
has been greatly advanced by procedures that were first developed to treat the wounds inflicted during combat. With the advent of advanced procedures and medical technology, even polytrauma can be survivable in modern wars. Battlefield medicine is a category of military medicine
Military medicine
The term military medicine has a number of potential connotations. It may mean:*A medical specialty, specifically a branch of occupational medicine attending to the medical risks and needs of soldiers, sailors and other service members...
.
Chronology of medical advances on the battlefield
- French military surgeon Ambroise ParéAmbroise ParéAmbroise Paré was a French surgeon. He was the great official royal surgeon for kings Henry II, Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III and is considered as one of the fathers of surgery and modern forensic pathology. He was a leader in surgical techniques and battlefield medicine, especially the...
(1510–90) pioneered modern battlefield wound treatment. - The practice of TriageTriageTriage or ) is the process of determining the priority of patients' treatments based on the severity of their condition. This rations patient treatment efficiently when resources are insufficient for all to be treated immediately. The term comes from the French verb trier, meaning to separate,...
pioneered by Dominique Jean LarreyDominique Jean LarreyDominique Jean Larrey was a French surgeon in Napoleon's army and an important innovator in battlefield medicine.-Biography:...
during the Napoleonic WarsNapoleonic WarsThe Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
(1803–1815). - American Civil WarAmerican Civil WarThe American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
surgeon Jonathan LettermanJonathan LettermanJonathan Letterman was an American surgeon credited as being the originator of the modern methods for medical organization in armies. Dr...
(1824–72) originated modern methods of medical organization within armies. - Advances in surgerySurgerySurgery is an ancient medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical...
- especially amputationAmputationAmputation is the removal of a body extremity by trauma, prolonged constriction, or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as malignancy or gangrene. In some cases, it is carried out on individuals as a preventative surgery for...
, during the Napoleonic Wars and first world warWorld War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
on the battlefield of the Somme. - Nikolay Ivanovich Pirogov, active during the Crimean WarCrimean WarThe Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...
, was one of the first surgeons to use etherEtherEthers are a class of organic compounds that contain an ether group — an oxygen atom connected to two alkyl or aryl groups — of general formula R–O–R'. A typical example is the solvent and anesthetic diethyl ether, commonly referred to simply as "ether"...
as an anaesthetic, as well as the very first surgeon to use anaesthesia in a field operation (1847). - The first practical method for transporting bloodBloodBlood is a specialized bodily fluid in animals that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells....
, by Norman BethuneNorman BethuneHenry Norman Bethune was a Canadian physician and medical innovator. Bethune is best known for his service in war time medical units during the Spanish Civil War and with the Communist Eighth Route Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War...
during the Spanish Civil WarSpanish Civil WarThe Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
. - AmbulanceAmbulanceAn ambulance is a vehicle for transportation of sick or injured people to, from or between places of treatment for an illness or injury, and in some instances will also provide out of hospital medical care to the patient...
s or dedicated vehicles for the purpose of carrying injured persons. - The extension of emergency medicineEmergency medicineEmergency medicine is a medical specialty in which physicians care for patients with acute illnesses or injuries which require immediate medical attention. While not usually providing long-term or continuing care, emergency medicine physicians diagnose a variety of illnesses and undertake acute...
to prehospital settings through the use of emergency medical technicianEmergency medical technicianEmergency Medical Technician or Ambulance Technician are terms used in some countries to denote a healthcare provider of emergency medical services...
s. - The establishment of fully equipped and mobile field hospitalField hospitalA field hospital is a large mobile medical unit that temporarily takes care of casualties on-site before they can be safely transported to more permanent hospital facilities...
s such as the Mobile Army Surgical HospitalMobile Army Surgical HospitalThe Mobile Army Surgical Hospital refers to a United States Army medical unit serving as a fully functional hospital in a combat area of operations. The units were first established in August 1945, and were deployed during the Korean War and later conflicts. The U.S...
and its successor, the Combat Support HospitalCombat support hospitalA Combat Support Hospital is a type of field hospital. The CSH is a United States military mobile hospital delivered to the Corps Support Area in standard military-owned Demountable Containers cargo containers and assembled by the staff into a tent hospital to treat wounded soldiers. A CSH also...
and the workhorse of the Iraq war known as the AFTH ( Balad). Making history at that AFTH were several pioneers in military medicine: Dr James Pollock( 1st FP physician to be certified in Critical Combat Care attending the day shift SICU in 2005-06) ; Col Ty Putnum ( Medical Cief of trama in Germany & Balad during much of the OIF combat period; Many other pioneers in trauma surgery and care rotating in 4-7 month AEF cycles). - The use of helicopters as ambulances, or MEDEVACMEDEVACMedical evacuation, often termed Medevac or Medivac, is the timely and efficient movement and en route care provided by medical personnel to the wounded being evacuated from the battlefield or to injured patients being evacuated from the scene of an accident to receiving medical facilities using...
s. Along with CCATT missions nightly by the USAF in OIF. Wound VACS, modified burn management protocols, liberal use of Factor 7 and other contributions from pioneers like Maj James Pollock, Major Mark Rasnake and Col Ty Putnum define the spirit of the Combat Medics of every AEF deployment cycle. - The use of remote Physiological Monitoring Devices on soldiers such as EquivitalEquivitalEquivital is a proprietary wearable remote physiological monitoring system developed by Hidalgo Limited, a Cambridge UK based biomedical company....
and Zephyr BioHarness systems to show vital signs and biomechanical data to the medic and MEDEVAC crew before and during trauma. This allows medicine and treatment to be administered as soon as possible in the field and during extraction.
The term "Meatball surgery" is a term used in battlefield medicine to refer to surgery that is meant to be performed rapidly to stabilize the patient as quickly as possible.
See also
- Military medicineMilitary medicineThe term military medicine has a number of potential connotations. It may mean:*A medical specialty, specifically a branch of occupational medicine attending to the medical risks and needs of soldiers, sailors and other service members...
- Medical CorpsMedical CorpsA medical corps is generally a military branch or officer corps responsible for medical care for serving military personnel. Such officers are typically military physicians...
- Combat medicCombat medicCombat medics are trained military personnel who are responsible for providing first aid and frontline trauma care on the battlefield. They are also responsible for providing continuing medical care in the absence of a readily available physician, including care for disease and battle injury...
- Combat support hospitalCombat support hospitalA Combat Support Hospital is a type of field hospital. The CSH is a United States military mobile hospital delivered to the Corps Support Area in standard military-owned Demountable Containers cargo containers and assembled by the staff into a tent hospital to treat wounded soldiers. A CSH also...
- Ambulance#Military use
- History of medicineHistory of medicineAll human societies have medical beliefs that provide explanations for birth, death, and disease. Throughout history, illness has been attributed to witchcraft, demons, astral influence, or the will of the gods...
- Polytrauma
- Timeline of medicine and medical technologyTimeline of medicine and medical technology- Antiquity :* 2600 BC – Imhotep wrote texts on ancient Egyptian medicine describing diagnosis and treatment of 200 diseases in 3rd dynasty Egypt.* 1500 BC – Saffron used as a medicine on the Aegean island of Thera in ancient Greece...
- Textbook of Military MedicineTextbook of Military MedicineThe Textbook of Military Medicine is a series of volumes on military medicine published since 1989 by the Borden Institute, of the Office of The Surgeon General, Department of the Army. It constitutes a comprehensive, multi-volume treatise on the art and science of military medicine, as practiced...
- Remote physiological monitoringRemote physiological monitoringRemote monitoring of people is now a possibility due to remote wireless technology and miniaturization. Also the advent of smart fabrics in recent years has allowed people to stay attached to monitoring devices without the issues of discomfort, large bulky technology or skin break down associated...
External links
- Battlefield Medicine - The Ancient World 2000 BC-AD 500
- EquivitalTM Remote Warfighter Physiological Monitoring
- BioHarness - remote combat casualty care
- Digital Military Medicine Collections of the U.S. Army Academy of Health Sciences, Stimson Library
- http://www.specialoperations.com/Navy/SEALs/SEAL_Medicine.htm Naval Special Warfare Command shifts from ATLS model to their own TCCC model as a result of new studies and the Iraq experience.
- "Medicine." The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia.