ARMY AL&T Injuries T
H A
E H Hospital Costs A T E H Disability Costs A T E
Distribution of injuries, resources, and disability costs by body region: A, abdomen; E, extremity; H, head; T, thorax.
The DOD-mandated award, funded by a Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program agreement to expand the Major Extremity Trauma Research Consortium, demonstrates the U.S. military’s commitment to the post- injury treatment, rehabilitation, quality of life, and return to duty for warriors with significant extremity trauma.
“Funding this consortium is the most significant event in orthopedic research in the past 50 years,” said Dr. Michael Bosse, Orthopedic Trauma Surgeon and Director of Orthopedic Clinical Research at the Carolinas Medical Center, Charlotte, NC. “For the first time in history, we have the organi- zational structure and medical and technical resources as well as the body of traumatic extremity injury data required by researchers to address critical research needs, accelerate quality-of-life outcomes, and establish ‘best practice’
treatment guidelines in clinical practice areas ranging from bone infections and pain management to bone regeneration.”
“I have no doubt that within five years, this research will redefine seri- ous extremity injury treatment practices and deliver life-changing out- comes,” said Joseph C. Wenke, Ph.D., Consortium Program Manager for USAISR at Fort Sam Houston, TX.
COL James Ficke, M.D., agreed. Ficke chairs the Department of Orthopedics and Rehabilitation at the San Antonio Military Medical Center in Texas and is Orthopedic Consultant to the U.S. Army Surgeon General. “Within five years,” said Ficke, “we will be able to routinely regenerate four or five inches of new bone in patients with open [compound fracture] wounds. This stag- gering accomplishment will significantly lower rehabilitation costs, virtually
eliminate disability costs, and improve quality of life by reducing the need for orthotics and prosthetics and doubling the return to duty/function rates of patients with open-extremity fractures.”
USAISR and USAMRAA are part of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (MRMC), head- quartered at Fort Detrick, MD.
A High Priority for Military Medicine
Since the beginning of World War II, if not before, the treatment, rehabilitation, and return to function of extremity-injured Soldiers have pushed the limits and tested the collective resolve of medical, technical, psychosocial, and financial institutions.
I have no doubt that within five years, this research will redefine serious extremity injury treatment practices and deliver life-changing outcomes.
36 APRIL –JUNE 2011
During the past nine years of Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn, the percentage of service members who have sustained significant extremity trauma, often to multiple limbs, exceeds 80 percent. In one roughly three-year period ending in January 2005, 1,281 Soldiers sustained a total of 3,575 extremity combat wounds. Half of the extremity-wounded warriors injured in the current conflicts have not returned to active duty.
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