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KMID : 0378019670100020061
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New Medical Journal
1967 Volume.10 No. 2 p.61 ~ p.67
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Statistical Observation on the Orthopedic Inpatients Evacuated from the ROK Marines Chong-Yong(Blue Dragon) Division in South Vietnam
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Abstract
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Statistical analysis on 84 orthopedic cases, about 85% of the war casualties evacuated from Vietnam to Seoul Naval Hospital during the period between November 20, 1965 and March 5, 1966 was made on basis of clinical records accompanying them and the interviews with them. The brief summary is as follows:
1) The time required to evacuate the wounded from the Vietnamese battle area to the nearby field or evacuation hospitals was greatly reduced to approximately one third that of the 2nd World War or the Korea War, owing to the almost exclusive use of helicopters as the means of evacuation. About 63% of the cases were brought to surgery within 8 hours after injury. And only 8 of 84 patients dropped in the battlion dispensaries on their ways to the field hospitals, which is quite unusual to the conventional mode of evacuation of the Marine Corps. However, evacuation route from the hospitals in Vietnam to the Seoul Naval Hospital, which includes several hospitals in different countries, appears to be more or less a complicated one, giving the patients physical and psychological burden and interfering with the consistent treatment of them. Furthermore, 18% of them lost the clinical records or X-rays. A shorter cut in the evacuation route is necessary.
2) Among 84 patients, about 76% were wounded while they engaged in combat duty and 11(13%) were injured by accidents of no military action. The bullets were the most frequent cause of the injuries, and in the bullet wound the left hand was most often involved. In view of the number of wounds, the left thigh had more wounds than any part of the body. In view of the number of wounds, the left hand, thigh and foot had more Chace of injuries than the right side, and conversely was more injuries in the right shoulder. In other parts of the body the both sides were evenly affected. The number of wounds in the extremities represents 86% of all the wounds of the body.
3) More than half the patients(59%) had recived wounds at the frontal portion of the body
4) The infection rate of the patients who had initial surgeries in the field hospitals was approximately 17.3 % and that of those who received surgeries within 8 hours after injury was 11%. However, when the rate is computed with the number of wounds, the ratio would be much lower.
5) Of the 27 patients of compound communited fracture, who needed the traction device, 12(41%) had complications such as ancrulations (3), stiffness of elbow joint (2), redisplacement of fracture with or without signs of nerve damage
(6), which were regarded as having taken place by too early removal of traction for the Purpose of evacuation and otherwise could have been prevented.
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