Introduction Although violent crime continues to decline, approximately 74,000 nonfatal gunshot injuries were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States in 2011, an increase of 10,000 compared with 2004. Estimates of total cost…
Introduction and General Principles Introduction The optimal soft tissue characteristics required for coverage of defects involving the upper and lower extremity vary according to the site and location of the defect. Characteristics of interest include pliability, durability, sensibility, the ability…
Introduction Approximately 6 million fractures and 7.5 million open wounds occur annually in the United States. Extrapolating from European studies, about 4% of all fractures are open, or about 250,000 open fractures annually in the United States. Other studies note…
Introduction Acute compartment syndrome (ACS) can be a devastating injury if diagnosis and treatment are delayed or missed. Physicians evaluating patients with acute long bone fractures, especially of the tibia, should keep ACS in the forefront of their mind when…
Disclaimer: The views in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Navy, Department of Defense, or the US government. I am a military service member.…
Introduction Surgeons, and especially trauma surgeons, are often confronted with chronic pain situations that develop subsequent to skeletal trauma. In addition to having a good professional working relationship with a pain specialist, surgeons need to have an in-depth and up-to-date…
Introduction For as long as the practice of medicine has existed, physicians have attempted to develop a tool to accurately measure pain. We now realize that it is not possible to measure pain because pain is not a quantifiable or…
Introduction Disasters are large-scale destructive events that disrupt the infrastructure and normal functioning of a community. Disasters are both natural (e.g., earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes) and manmade or anthropogenic. Anthropogenic disasters can be either unintentional (e.g., industrial spills, structural collapse) or…
Introduction Orthopaedic trauma patients presenting with hemodynamic instability and associated multisystem injuries represent challenging cases, particularly with respect to their initial management. Several treatment algorithms exist, yet there is no clear consensus regarding appropriate patient stratification. When confronted with the…
Introduction Proper management of trauma patients requires early recognition of spinal trauma to minimize the potential catastrophic sequelae of undetected or underestimated injuries of the spinal column. The epidemiology of spine trauma can be difficult to quantify because most population-level…