The use of damage-control principles for penetrating pelvic battlefield trauma.

Background: High-velocity, penetrating pelvic injuries present one of the most difficult challenges to military trauma surgeons. The patients often present in physiologic extremis, and their injury-site patterns frequently include soft tissue, pelvic fractures, genitourinary tract, rectum, vascular structures, and intra-abdominal viscera.

Methods: A retrospective review of the 31st Combat Support Hospital damage-control laparotomy database, under an Institutional Review Board-approved protocol, revealed 28 patients with severe multisystem penetrating pelvic injuries.