Civilian versus military trauma dogma: who do you trust?

Combat trauma differs from its peacetime counterpart by involving a different spectrum of injuries, occurring in austere environments, dealing with mass casualties, and embodying inherent treatment delays. Thus, civilian trauma practices may be inappropriate in certain combat settings. A review of historical as well as current vivilian and military data is presented for four trauma topics (military antishock trousers, wound debridement, colon wounds, fluid resuscitation) in which civilian and military principles have clashed.

Abdominal trauma in war.

In war, the percentage of casualties with abdominal wounds on battlefields is near 20%. Roughly half of these casualties die almost immediately from bleeding. Wounding agents are most often either bullets or fragments from various detonating devices.