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Battlefield medicine, also called field surgery and more recently combat casualty care, is the treatment of wounded soldier
Soldier

A soldier is a general English term that refers to a land component of national armed forces.In most societies of the world, "soldier" is also a general term for any member of the land forces including Commissioned officer and non-commissioned officers....
s in or near an area of combat. Civilian medicine
Medicine

Medicine is the art and science of healing. It encompasses a range of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
 has been greatly advanced by procedures that were first developed to treat the wounds inflicted during combat.






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Battlefield Wounds 300px
Battlefield medicine, also called field surgery and more recently combat casualty care, is the treatment of wounded soldier
Soldier

A soldier is a general English term that refers to a land component of national armed forces.In most societies of the world, "soldier" is also a general term for any member of the land forces including Commissioned officer and non-commissioned officers....
s in or near an area of combat. Civilian medicine
Medicine

Medicine is the art and science of healing. It encompasses a range of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
 has been greatly advanced by procedures that were first developed to treat the wounds inflicted during combat. With the advent of advanced procedures and medical technology, even polytrauma
Polytrauma

Polytrauma is a medical term describing the condition of a person who has been subjected to multiple Physical trauma, such as a serious head injury AND a serious burn....
 can be survivable in modern wars. Battlefield medicine is a category of military medicine
Military medicine

The term military medicine has a number of potential connotations. It may mean:*A medical specialty, specifically a branch of occupational medicine attending to the medical risks and needs of soldiers, sailors and other service members....
.

Chronology of medical advances on the battlefield

  • French military surgeon Ambroise Paré
    Ambroise Paré

    Ambroise Par? was a French surgery. He was the great official royal surgeon for the kings Henry II of France, Francis II of France, Charles IX of France and Henry III of France and is considered as one of the fathers of surgery....
     (1510-90) pioneered modern battlefield wound treatment.
  • The practice of Triage
    Triage

    Block quoteTriage is a process of prioritizing patients based on the severity of their condition. This rations patient treatment efficiently when resources are insufficient for all to be treated immediately....
    , by Dominique Jean Larrey
    Dominique Jean Larrey

    Dominique Jean Larrey was a France surgery in Napoleon I of France's army and an important innovator in battlefield medicine....
     during the Napoleonic Wars
    Napoleonic Wars

    The Napoleonic Wars were a series of conflicts involving Napoleon I of France First French Empire and changing sets of European allies and opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815....
     (1803-1815).
  • American Civil War
    American Civil War

    The American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several Naming the American Civil War, was a civil war in the United States....
     surgeon Jonathan Letterman
    Jonathan Letterman

    Jonathan Letterman was an United States surgeon credited as being the originator of the modern methods for medical organization in armies. Dr....
     (1824-72) originated modern methods of medical organization within armies.
  • Advances in surgery
    Surgery

    Surgery is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, to help improve bodily function or appearance, or sometimes for some other reason....
     - especially amputation
    Amputation

    Amputation is the removal of a body extremity by Physical trauma or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as cancer or gangrene....
    , during the Napoleonic Wars and first world war
    World War I

    World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
     on the battlefield of the Somme.
  • Nikolay Ivanovich Pirogov, active during the Crimean War
    Crimean War

    The Crimean War, also known in Russia as the Oriental War was fought between the Russian Empire on one side and an alliance of France, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Kingdom of Sardinia, and the Ottoman Empire on the other....
    , was one of the first surgeons to use ether
    Ether

    Ether is a class of organic compounds which contain an ether functional group ? an oxygen atom connected to two alkyl or aryl groups ? of general formula R?O?R....
     as an anaesthetic, as well as the very first surgeon to use anaesthesia in a field operation (1847).
  • The first practical method for transporting blood
    Blood

    Blood is a specialized bodily fluid that delivers necessary substances to the body's Cell s ? such as nutrients and oxygen ? and transports waste products away from those same cells....
    , by Norman Bethune
    Norman Bethune

    Henry Norman Bethune was a Canada physician and medical innovator. Bethune is best known for his service in war time medical units during the Spanish Civil War and with the Chinese Communists during the Second Sino-Japanese War....
     during the Spanish Civil War
    Spanish Civil War

    The Spanish Civil War was a major conflict in Spain that started after an attempted coup d'?tat by a group of Spanish Army generals, supported by the conservative Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right , Carlist groups and the fascistic Falange, against the government of the Second Spanish Republic, then under the leadership of pr...
    .
  • Ambulance
    Ambulance

    file:Ambulancebroomfieldhospital.jpgfile:C12 air ambulance.jpgfile:Scilly Isles Ambulance Service alongside Tresco quay.jpgAn ambulance is a vehicle for transporting sick or injured people, to, from or between places of treatment for an illness or injury....
    s or dedicated vehicles for the purpose of carrying injured persons.
  • The extension of emergency medicine
    Emergency medicine

    Emergency medicine is a speciality of medicine that focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of acute illnesses and injuries that require immediate medical attention....
     to prehospital settings through the use of emergency medical technician
    Emergency medical technician

    Emergency medical technician is a term used in various countries to denote a healthcare provider trained to provide pre-hospital emergency medical services....
    s.
  • The establishment of fully equipped and mobile field hospital
    Field hospital

    A field hospital is a large mobile medical unit that temporarily takes care of casualties on-site before they can be safely transported to more permanent hospital facilities....
    s such as the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital
    Mobile Army Surgical Hospital

    The Mobile Army Surgical Hospital refers to a United States Army medical unit serving as a fully functional hospital in a combat area of operations....
     and its successor, the Combat Support Hospital
    Combat support hospital

    A Combat Support Hospital is a type of field hospital. The CSH is a United States military mobile hospital delivered to the Corps Support Area in standard military-owned Demountable Containers cargo containers and assembled by the staff into a tent hospital to treat wounded soldiers....
    .
  • The use of helicopters as ambulances, or MEDEVAC
    MEDEVAC

    Medical evacuation, often termed MEDEVAC or medivac, is the timely and efficient movement and en route care provided by medical personnel to the wounded being evacuated from the battlefield or to injured patients being evacuated from the scene of an accident to receiving medical facilities using medically equipped ground vehicl...
    s.
  • The use of remote Physiological Monitoring Devices on soldiers such as [EquivitalTM and Zephyr BioHarness] system to show vital signs and biomechanical data to the medic and MEDEVAC crew before and during trauma. This allows medicine and treatment to be administered as soon as possible in the field and during extraction.


The term "Meatball surgery" is a term used in battlefield medicine to refer to surgery that is meant to be performed rapidly to stabilize the patient as quickly as possible. This term; "meatball surgery" is widely used in the television show M*A*S*H when discussing the type of surgery performed at the unit.

See also

  • Military medicine
    Military medicine

    The term military medicine has a number of potential connotations. It may mean:*A medical specialty, specifically a branch of occupational medicine attending to the medical risks and needs of soldiers, sailors and other service members....
  • Medical corps
    Medical Corps

    Medical Corps may refer to any of the following organizations:In the British Armed Forces and Commonwealth of Nations:* Royal Army Medical Corps, a specialist corps of the Army Medical Services that provides medical care to British Army personnel...
  • Combat medic
    Combat medic

    Combat medics are trained military personnel who are responsible for providing first aid and frontline medicine on the battlefield. They are also responsible for providing continuing medical care in the absence of a readily available physician, including care for disease and non battle injury....
  • History of medicine
    History of medicine

    All human societies have medicine beliefs that provide explanations for childbirth, death, and disease. Throughout history, illness has been attributed to witchcraft, demons, adverse astrology, or the will of the deity....
  • Polytrauma
    Polytrauma

    Polytrauma is a medical term describing the condition of a person who has been subjected to multiple Physical trauma, such as a serious head injury AND a serious burn....
  • Timeline of medicine and medical technology
    Timeline of medicine and medical technology

    Timeline of medicine and medical technology...
  • Textbook of Military Medicine
    Textbook of Military Medicine

    The Textbook of Military Medicine is a series of volumes on military medicine published since 1989 by the Borden Institute, of the Surgeon General of the United States Army, United States Army....
  • Remote Physiological Monitoring
    Remote physiological monitoring

    Remote monitoring of people is now a possibility due to remote wireless technology and devices getting smaller. Also the advent of "smart fabrics" in recent years has allowed people to stay attached to monitoring devices without the issues of discomfort, large bulky technology or skin break down associated with sticky patches....


External links

  • , Washington, DC: The Borden Institute
    Borden Institute

    The Borden Institute is a U.S. Army ?Center of Excellence in Military Medical Research and Education? located on the grounds of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center , in Washington, DC....
    .