Background: Modern war ballistics and blast injuries inflict devastating extremity injuries, violating soft tissue, bone, and neurovascular structures. Despite advances in complex wound management, appropriate timing of war wound closure remains subjective. In addition, the pathophysiology of acute wound failure is poorly defined.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: To manage the influx of patients with predominately extremity injuries from Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), our center was required to transform from a nontrauma academic hospital to a trauma hospital by using a multidisciplinary approach.
Study Design: A retrospective chart review was performed of casualties from OIF who were received over 14 months.
Results: A total of 313 casualties were received.
Background: In recent studies, blood transfusion has been shown to increase the rate of wound healing disturbances in orthopedic patients. Furthermore, our group has determined a correlation between delayed wound healing and elevations in inflammatory mediators in combat casualties. Therefore, we sought to determine the effect of blood transfusion on wound healing and inflammatory mediator release in combat casualties.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Management of penetrating colorectal injuries in the civilian trauma population has evolved away from diversionary stoma into primary repair or resection and primary anastomosis. With this in mind, we evaluated how injuries to the colon and rectum were managed in the ongoing war in Iraq.
Methods: The records of Operation Iraqi Freedom patients evacuated to National Naval Medical Center (NNMC) from March 2004 until November 2005 were retrospectively reviewed.
Benign pneumoperitoneum is asymptomatic free intraabdominal air and is reported to occur occasionally with colonoscopy. Management of benign pneumoperitoneum after colonoscopy is controversial and may depend on incidence or etiology. No previous studies prospectively investigated the incidence or inciting factors of benign pneumoperitoneum resulting from colonoscopy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntussusception of the appendix is an extremely rare condition. Although approximately 200 cases of appendiceal intussusception have been reported in the literature, very few have ever been diagnosed preoperatively. We report a case of appendiceal intussusception secondary to endometriosis in an otherwise healthy female.
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