Combat Research: 1 in 5 Suffer Head and Neck Wounds

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/health/feeds/hscout/2004/09/24/hscout521347.html

A significant percentage of U.S. soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering potentially lethal wounds to the head and neck, areas not covered by today's improved body armor.

A unique report on combat injuries found that, in a 14-month period, one of every five soldiers injured in battle and airlifted to an American military hospital in Germany suffered from this type of injury.

The finding, presented this week by a U.S. military surgeon at a conference in New York City, led the research team to urge that more head-and-neck specialists be deployed closer to the front, advice that the U.S. Air Force has just begun following.

"I think that 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," said study co-author Lt. Col. Michael S. Xydakis, an ear-nose-and-throat specialist and head-and-neck surgeon with the U.S. Air Force medical corps.

Just this week a young soldier from a small town I visit up near Altoona PA, Hollidaysburg, died from the head wound he sustained back in February.

Sgt. Brandon E. Adams, 22, of Hollidaysburg, Blair County, died Sunday at Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital in Washington, D.C., according to his grandmother and a funeral home. Military officials did not confirm his death yesterday.

Adams, who was with the 10th Mountain Division out of Fort Drum, N.Y., was wounded by a grenade while in Fallujah on Feb. 16, said his grandmother, Melda Bricker.

Doctors in Baghdad were able to remove six pieces of shrapnel from his head, but they had to leave three pieces behind and remove parts of his skull, Bricker said.

He spent the next several months in hospitals in Germany, at Walter Reed, and in Richmond, Va., recovering from his wounds and going through therapy. He stayed in a hospital in Altoona until last week, when he went back to Walter Reed for surgery to have metal plates put in his head.

"He was improving very slowly. His mind was good and all his vital signs were fine. ... A week before they took him

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04267/383879.stm

[KittyWampus]

1. The New Helmets Have Drawbacks However.

the part that protects the head better also makes helmet slip down over eyes when you move, thereby potentially blinding soldiers in combat as they move about.

Nothing is perfect.

[JoFerret]

2. More infor from the American Academy

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=13665

1 in 6 Combat Wounded in Iraq, Afghanistan Need Treatment by Otolaryngologists

Improved Kevlar body armor has resulted in a distinctly new pattern of combat injuries. The majority of injuries now occur in unprotected areas of the body, including the head and neck regions. These are the findings by military surgeons who conducted a 14-month review of wounded military personnel from Iraq and Afghanistan brought to Landstuhl, Germany who required treatment from an ear, nose, and throat specialist/head and neck surgeon.

One of the characteristics of military medicine is its provision of medical care by echelon, or level. Level I care occurs on the battlefield, and is usually provided to a casualty by a buddy or a medic. Level II care occurs at the level of the medical company of the brigade or division. Level III is a theater-deployed hospital. Level IV is overseas sustaining fixed facility tertiary care medical centers. Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LRMC) at Ramstein Air Force Base (AFB) in Southwest Germany is the only Level IV facility outside the United States offering definitive care for combat forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Landstuhl, a 20-building hospital complex, has a normal bed capacity of 162, yet increased to over 322 prior to the beginning of the war. This facility has accepted the vast majority of casualties from both Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF)/ Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). From Landstuhl, patients are then air-evacuated predominantly to Walter-Reed Army Medical center or Bethesda Naval Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Additional patients are sent to Wilford Hall Air Force Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. However, most of the OIF/OEF soldiers are definitively treated in Germany then returned to duty downrange in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Currently, there are no ((ENT))-head and neck surgeons assigned in either the Army Combat Support Hospitals (CSH) or the Air Force Expeditionary Medical Support (EMEDS) mobile hospitals. Therefore, no ENT surgeon is currently tasked to deploy to a level under Level IV echelon of care. Therefore, the first place that an injured or ill combat service member will see an ENT surgeon is as a result of evacuation out of theater to a Level IV facility in Germany.

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American Academy of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery (AAOHNS)