Ground fighting and proximity to explosions plus changes in soldiers’ protective gear have been factors in an increase of head and neck wounds seen by military doctors.
A report documenting combat injuries over a 14-month period at a particular American military hospital found that one in five soldiers injured in battle suffered from a life-threatening head or neck injury.
The report was based on information about soldiers admitted to the United States military's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, part of Ramstein Air Force Base in southwestern Germany, and presented by co-author Lt. Col. Michael S. Xydakis, a U.S. military surgeon at a conference in New York in late September.
Currently, soldiers injured in the field are given emergency care immediately, when possible, and then either transferred to a mobile medical staff following their unit or a military field hospital. If their injuries are more severe, they are transported to facilities like the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, which currently receives most of the Iraq- and Afghanistan-stationed soldiers who are severely injured in combat.
But, as Xydakis noted, an 18-hour flight before optimum care can be obtained is less than ideal. “Any time you can bring the surgeons that definitively treat those types of injuries closer to the patient, seeing them in a more timely manner, it's always better for the patient," he said.
Xydakis commented that especially because of the youth of many of the patients, injuries can be very difficult for even the most experienced military caregivers to see.
Even nonfatal injuries can have devastating and life-changing results, including shattered jaws, blindness, irreversible brain damage, breathing problems, and severe disfiguration.
The study covered the period of admissions from January 1, 2003, to March 19, 2004. During that time, over 11,000 soldiers were admitted to the hospital. 16 percent of those admitted had injuries to the head, neck or face, while 21 percent of those who were listed as having been injured “in battle” suffered from this type of injury.
Based on the findings of Xydakis and his fellow researchers, the military is taking action to move surgeons and other medical staff necessary for treating these kind of injuries closer to the front lines. Allowing soldiers to be cared for closer to their units is also an advantage, because it boosts morale of the troops. “The esprit de corps is such that they don't want to leave their battle buddies," Xydakis added. "It's really noble. They don't want to leave their units."
The U.S.-led wars against Iraq and Afghanistan are the first instances of sustained ground combat since the Vietnam War, noted Xydakis, adding that he speculates the difference in combat style, as well as the types of attacks sustained, may account for the change in statistics.
