Skill sets and competencies for the modern military surgeon: Lessons from UK military operations in Southern Afghanistan

The UK military experience of thoracic injury in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

“…Seven of our patients had cardiac repair without cardiopulmonary bypass with six surviving to discharge, although we accept that they are likely to be a self selecting group, as they arrived to Role 3 with spontaneous circulation. In Zakharia's personal series, 28 36 pneumonectomies were performed; Biocina 29 reported that 5 patients had pneumonectomy. However there was no further information as to whether these patients survived.…”

“…Within the UK NHS, general surgical trainees have limited exposure to trauma thoracotomy; only a quarter of higher surgical trainees have seen an emergency thoracotomy 35 and Brooks and Ramasamy 35,36 have previously presented data suggesting that a six to eight weeks deployment to the British Military Hospital in Afghanistan is comparable to, or in excess of, the entire trauma experience acquired during higher surgical training. All thoracic surgical interventions detailed in this article were performed by military surgeons who practise as General Surgeons within the NHS.…”

In-vehicle extremity injuries from improvised explosive devices: current and future foci

“…Consequently, there has been an increased incidence of severely injured casualties surviving with multiple extremity injuries. Recent studies from Iraq and Afghanistan have shown that extremity injuries are seen in over 70 per cent of casualties, with the lower limbs injured in 45 per cent of all casualties [9,[12][13][14]. Furthermore, in a recent review of casualties from IEDs, 46/53 (87%) of casualties are reported to have sustained injuries to the lower limbs [8].…”

Current US Military Operations and Implications for Military Surgical Training

“…It is also the first manuscript to be published on the topic specifically regarding the US military experience. This topic has additionally been considered by military surgeons from the United Kingdom, who have detailed their experience in both Iraq and Afghanistan and made recommendations for training curriculum modification 6 and implemented new strategies for training military surgeons such as deployment of surgical registrars to the theater of operations. 7 As stated by Hippocrates and echoed by prominent surgeons since, "If one wants to learn surgery, one must go to war."…”