[ role of negative pressure wound therapy in the treatment of war wounds]

ABSTRACT

Wartime injuries are frequently high-energy wounds. In modern warfare wounds involve in many cases the musculoskeletal system and therefore military orthopedic surgeons have assumed a pivotal role in the frontline treatment of these injuries. The majority of injuries were caused by exploding [approximately 55 percent] and approximately 20 percent were from gunshot wounds. The increased numbers of extremity injuries have led to the necessity for new technologies in managing complex war wounds. In warfare situations and particularly from long-distance evacuations, it became necessary to develop alternate forms of wound management. Sometimes, due to massive secretion, dressing changes were necessary twice daily. Therefore, starting 2003 negative pressure wound therapy [NPWT] dressings were instituted to treat the complex war injury. However, the use of NPWT for the care of complex war wounds at battlefield trauma hospitals and/or in the aeromedical evacuation transport system aboard aircraft is still a new application of this wound treatment not yet accepted as doctrine