Amputee Christine Pegleg
Download File https://urloso.com/2taSke
The only war with more amputees recorded in the U.S. since World War II than the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan is the Vietnam War, with about 12.4% of its amputees. With nearly 20,000 amputees still alive, the fact that the Vietnam amputee population is still relatively high suggests that the improvements in care and prosthetic devices are not keeping pace with the pace of conflict.
That amputee population numbers and trends may be found in another way. The World Health Organization (WHO) collects data on the number of people who have amputations and their causes.33 WHO analyzed the number of people who were amputees at the time of enrollment into its Global Burden of Disease study.34 The results of this study found that approximately 1.6 million people worldwide had undergone an amputation as of 2005. The WHO noted that one-third of these amputees were conflict-related.
Of that total, 27% was amputation as a result of a conflict, as opposed to a cancer, vascular disease, or other injury. This means that about 674,900 people were amputees as a result of a conflict, which is the equivalent of the Vietnam War’s amputee population. The number of amputees as a result of conflict is increasing at a rate of nearly 2% per year, based on the WHO data. This increase is projected to double by 2030. The increase is likely to have a far greater impact on amputee populations because of the increase in wars, many of which will be protracted in nature.
The lessons learned from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have led to significant medical and surgical advances that have improved the lives of amputees, especially in the context of conflict. There has been a marked improvement in the surgical techniques of combat-related amputation, for example, with the use of tourniquets (previously often requiring amputation) and improved field surgical management of femur fractures.32 More recently, the rise in the number of amputees who have returned to Iraq and Afghanistan may be an indication that medical services have improved.
Amputees are also more likely to go to military hospitals for their amputations because the treatment required in the acute care of the amputee is similar to that needed by a wounded soldier. An amputee is going to need prosthetic assistance for the immediate rehabilitation, and there may be pressure to amputate while the amputee is in the hospital to avoid long periods of rehabilitation in a foreign environment. The military hospitals are familiar with the problems of providing prosthetic assistance and rehabilitation and have proven expertise in treating wounded soldiers.
Amputees also are more likely to go to military hospitals for their amputations because they are taking over the trauma care function that was traditionally the responsibility of the trauma surgeons. The trauma surgeon may have difficulty in providing the prosthetic fitting and rehabilitation necessary after an amputation, and the amputee will get quicker care and rehabilitation at a military hospital than in a civilian hospital. 827ec27edc