Posted on 04/01/2009 2:30:12 AM PDT by neverdem
New procedures were rushed into theaters of war without rigorous review
The U.S. Army has quietly altered or abandoned some of its more experimental medical treatments for troops injured in combat, as advances it once hailed as groundbreaking are foundlargely ineffective or perhaps even dangerous.
Advanced battle dressings, a blood-clotting drug, alternative procedures for emergency blood transfusions - each was introduced early in the Iraq war, often with little evidence to support them beyond anecdotes or tests on animals. A few were adopted widely by civilian hospitals, based almost exclusively on accolades from the military.
But an investigation by The Baltimore Sun reveals that military doctors and medics, and in some cases uniformed leaders, have rejected or curtailed use of many of the new devices and techniques as clinical experience and data from the war zone yield disappointing and sometimes troubling results.
Senior Army doctors rushed medical innovations onto the battlefield without the rigorous review common in civilian hospitals, The Sun found, and sometimes changed or disregarded data from their own scientists. In some instances, wounded service members were among the first humans on whom the treatments were used. And while virtually all of the Army's published research supports the treatments, some Army studies concluding that they are ineffective or potentially dangerous haven't been published.
The aggressive push is a point of pride to some Army doctors and officials. Others deride it as reckless, and still others say they felt pressured to defy their own judgments in favor of the military's favored, but unproven, treatments...
--snip--
But plasma has been implicated in lung infections and other complications, and the new ratio quadrupled the standard dose of plasma. Like some other guidelines, the 1:1 ratio was initially based solely on anecdotes, theories and computer modeling performed in San Antonio.
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
Sounds OK to me. How else are new procedures going to get tested out in real life, unless they get tested out in real life? No scandal here...
Please save us from computer models. Lord have mercy.
AMEN
In trauma medicine war has long literally been the bleeding edge for developing new ideas. Certainly not everything that’s been tried and initially looked good held up long term, but major medical progress has been made because of wars.
First of all the title makes no sense. Mlitary medicine has been tested in battle for over a hundred years. In Iraq the system has been enormously successful, the survival rate after injury is way high.
Secondly, the battlefield has always been a source of testing and new procedures because of the volume and variety of wounds and the constraints of the system. Lots of what you see in an ER began on battlefields in Korea and Viet Nam.
I had heard anecdotally that those coagulent bandages were enormously effective.
Also to be picky, military doctors are also ‘military leaders’ I don’t see why the author distinguished the two.
He installed windshields and was always cutting himself on broken glass. I saw him glue himself many times, but never had the stomach to try it on myself.
re: super glue —
I work with a guy who was a combat medic in Viet Nam. He says the same thing and still uses superglue for clean lacerations.
It looks like that would be a very easy way for causing blood borne infections, as there's no filter between your system and any impurities in the glue.
In any event though, it's still better than bleeding to death.
On a side note, here's another interesting use for super glue - gluing poultry asses shut before slaughter to prevent fecal contamination of the meat processing plant.
“Please save us from computer models. Lord have mercy.”
I’m pretty grumpy about unvalidated models. But I go to a lot of conferences with military guys who do modeling. Unlike the Global Warming kooks, the military guys are fastidious about testing their models and validating them in the real world. When their models get it wrong, they will admit it.
On these medical issues, there will be lessons learned seminars so the mistakes are not repeated.
Good tourniquet's for emergency use to stop extreme blood loss or make a compression bandage .
Now as a retired gomer who likes to hunt and visit the range I pack a few of the asherman patches for sucking chest wounds, the celox sponges to poke into injuries a lone individual may not be able to “pour” the granular versions into.
Beware...the celox and quik clot products is a last ditch effort to be used.
My kit carried now is minimal with purpose for short term emergency medical emergencies. No bactine etc .....just gear that has been proven to work for me during my military career. Only modern items in the kit are an ACR Personal locator beacon (PLB) ! If I can do one thing, if injured or I am too far out to move a friend that is injured I activate the ACR PLB and leave it with em, try to get a cellular signal, or walk out for help as a last resort. The PLB is a good tool for folks that get off the path hunting , fishing , hiking or 4 wheeling etc ......must have IMO !
I like your style. My eyes glaze over when most people start talking about first aid because it always involves too much of everything, too much expertise and too much gear to carry, and it always involves expense and materials that get old and have to be replaced etc.
I hope that you are inspired someday to do a one or two page “idiots guide to keeping your intellectually lazy, medically ignorant, equipment unprepared self alive for a couple of hours until you can get back to your truck manual”.
It could list some basics to carry like a bandanna, iodine, a couple of sandwich bags, a kotex, or whatever and some simple instructions like flush the wound, pull the sides together and get to the truck, or “don’t pull out the stick” or whatever.
In my EOD career we carried “kits” prepared for us by corpsmen yet with basics we had for training most of the crap was just that ......we modified the hell out of em as stated and dumped that which we could improvise in the field. My brother is a career USAF PJ and I run all new and improved by him and consider all from time management (magic hour) to what we really can and can’t do for ourselves and others with life threatening injuries and try and counter that with speed to aid.
Thanks for the kind words.....
Stay Safe !
More important-—
Army’s claims for survival rate in Iraq don’t hold up
Baltimore Sun
Dr. S. Ward Casscells, the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, told a panel in August that the survival rate in Iraq has doubled since Vietnam and that battlefield medical care is responsible. Both are common refrains, but neither is entirely accurate.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/health/bal-military-medicine-statistics-0329,0,7075937.story
Ever use sugar to treat the ‘road rash’ kind of injuries?
Yes I did , age old cure. Good point ASOC !!........as well we used alka seltzer for a super fast rehydration method.
Obama’s Ersatz Capitalism (Joe Stiglitz from Columbia - THUMBS DOWN - MUST READ)
Some noteworthy articles about politics, foreign or military affairs, IMHO, FReepmail me if you want on or off my list.
Thanks for the ping!
alka seltzer for a super fast rehydration method.
Hadn’t heard of that, how does it work?
Superglue on clean cuts once in a while and neo sporin,
now I’ve had hospital nurses tell me it doesn’t do anything
but in all my years of using it I have healed faster with less soreness than anything else.
Will add some baggies to my kit.
Here’s my tip.
Oil of Clove, comes in a tiny bottle, if you crack or lose a filling put some on the gumline with a Q tip or bit of cloth or even your finger, pain will disappear and it tastes like clove rather than some medicine.
Tiny bottle costs $5 but nothing is worse than a tooth ache
in the wild.
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