Joseph R. Hsu

Clinical application of an acellular biologic scaffold for surgical repair of a large, traumatic quadriceps femoris muscle defect.

Many battlefield injuries involve penetrating soft tissue trauma often accompanied by skeletal muscle defects, known as volumetric muscle loss. This article presents the first known case of a surgical technique involving an innovative tissue engineering approach for the repair of a large volumetric muscle loss. A 19-year-old Marine presented with large volumentric muscle loss of the right thigh as a result of an explosion. The patient reported muscle weakness with right knee extension, secondary to volumentric muscle loss, primarily involving the vastus medialis muscle. This persisted 3 years postinjury, despite extensive physical therapy. With all existing management options exhausted, restoration of a portion of the lost vastus medialis muscle was attempted by surgical implantation of a multi-layered scaffold composed of extracellular matrix derived from porcine intestinal submucossa. The patient had no complications, was discharged home on postoperative day 5, and resumed physical therapy after 4 weeks. Four months postoperatively, the patient demonstrated marked gains in isokinetic performance. Computer tomography indicated new tissue at the implant site. This approach offers a treatment option to a heretofore untreatable injury and will allow us to improve future surgical treatments for volumetric muscle loss.

Battlefield orthopaedic injuries cause the majority of long-term disabilities

&NA; Extremity injuries make up 54% of combat wounds sustained in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. In a cohort of war‐wounded service members, we identified the conditions secondary to battle injury that result in disqualification from continued service. The Army Physical Evaluation Board records of 464 wounded service members who were injured between October 2001 and January 2005 were reviewed to determine the codes indicating unfitting conditions. Sixty‐nine percent of these conditions were orthopaedic. Fifty‐seven percent of the injured had unfitting conditions that were orthopaedic only. Of those evacuated from theater with a primary diagnosis of injury to the head, thorax, or abdomen and who suffered an orthopaedic injury as well, 76% had an orthopaedic diagnosis as the primary unfitting condition. Orthopaedic‐related disability has a significant impact on the affected patient, the health care system, and, in the case of wounded service members, on military strength and readiness.

Volumetric muscle loss

&NA; Prevention of infection, as well as bone covering and healing, is paramount in the management of limb injury with associated muscle injury. Volumetric muscle loss (VML) is the traumatic or surgical loss of skeletal muscle with resultant functional impairment. No standardized evaluation protocol exists for the characterization and quantification of VML. Clinical photographs and video recordings, range of motion measurements, manual muscle strength testing, and isokinetic muscle function testing may prove to be useful in documenting VML. Current treatment options include functional free muscle transfer and the use of advanced bracing designs. Advances in powered bracing and regenerative medicine may one day provide additional therapeutic options. Further research on VML is warranted.

Haemodynamically unstable pelvic fractures

Bleeding pelvic fractures that result in haemodynamic instability have a reported mortality rate as high as 40%. Because of the extreme force needed to disrupt the pelvic ring, associated injuries are common and mortality is usually from uncontrolled haemorrhage from extra-pelvic sources. Identifying and controlling all sources of bleeding is a complex challenge and is best managed by a multi-disciplinary team, which include trauma surgeons, orthopaedic surgeons and interventional radiologists. Once the pelvis is identified as the major source of haemorrhage, component therapy reconstituting whole blood should be used and the pelvic region wrapped circumferentially with a sheet or pelvic binder. Patients at risk for arterial bleeding who continue to show haemodynamic instability despite resuscitative efforts should undergo immediate arteriography and embolisation of bleeding pelvic vessels. If this is unavailable or delayed, or the patient has other injuries (i.e., head, chest, intra-abdominal, long bone), external fixation and pelvic packing, performed concomitantly with other life-saving procedures, may be used to further reduce pelvic venous bleeding. If however, the patient remains haemodynamically labile without apparent source of blood loss, transcatheter angiographic embolisation should be attempted to locate and stop pelvic arterial bleeding. Institutional practice guidelines have been shown to reduce mortality and should be developed by all centres treating pelvic fractures.

Prevention and management of infections associated with combat-related extremity injuries.

Orthopedic injuries suffered by casualties during combat constitute approximately 65% of the total percentage of injuries and are evenly distributed between upper and lower extremities. The high-energy explosive injuries, environmental contamination, varying evacuation procedures, and progressive levels of medical care make managing combat-related injuries challenging. The goals of orthopedic injury management are to prevent infection, promote fracture healing, and restore function. It appears that 2% to 15% of combat-related extremity injuries develop osteomyelitis, although lower extremity injuries are at higher risk of infections than upper extremity. Management strategies of combat-related injuries primarily focus on early surgical debridement and stabilization, antibiotic administration, and delayed primary closure. Herein, we provide evidence-based recommendations from military and civilian data to the management of combat-related injuries of the extremity. Areas of emphasis include the utility of bacterial cultures, antimicrobial therapy, irrigation fluids and techniques, timing of surgical care, fixation, antibiotic impregnated beads, wound closure, and wound coverage with negative pressure wound therapy. Most of the recommendations are not supported by randomized controlled trials or adequate cohorts studies in a military population and further efforts are needed to answer best treatment strategies.

Resource utilization and disability outcome assessment of combat casualties from Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

Objectives: Injuries are common during combat operations. The high costs of extremity injuries both in resource utilization and disability are well known in the civilian sector. We hypothesized that, similarly, combat-related extremity injuries, when compared with other injures from the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, require the largest percentage of medical resources, account for the greatest number of disabled soldiers, and have greater costs of disability benefits. Design: Descriptive epidemiologic study and cost analysis. Methods: The Department of Defense Medical Metrics (M2) database was queried for the hospital admissions and billing data of a previously published cohort of soldiers injured in Iraq and Afghanistan between October 2001 and January 2005 and identified from the Joint Theater Trauma Registry. The US Army Physical Disability Administration database was also queried for Physical Evaluation Board outcomes for these soldiers, allowing calculation of disability benefit cost. Primary body region injured was assigned using billing records that gave a primary diagnosis International Classification of Diseases Ninth Edition code, which was corroborated with Joint Theater Trauma Registry injury mechanisms and descriptions for accuracy. Results: A total of 1333 soldiers had complete admission data and were included from 1566 battle injuries not returned to duty of 3102 total casualties. Extremity-injured patients had the longest average inpatient stay at 10.7 days, accounting for 65% of the

Prevention of infections associated with combat-related extremity injuries

65.3-million total inpatient resource utilization, 64% of the 464 patients found “unfit for duty,” and 64% of the

Guidelines for the prevention of infections associated with combat-related injuries: 2011 update endorsed by the infectious diseases society of America and the surgical infection society

170-million total projected disability benefit costs. Extrapolation of data yields total disability costs for this conflict, approaching

Infectious complications and soft tissue injury contribute to late amputation after severe lower extremity trauma.

2 billion. Conclusions: Combat-related extremity injuries require the greatest utilization of resources for inpatient treatment in the initial postinjury period, cause the greatest number of disabled soldiers, and have the greatest projected disability benefit costs. This study highlights the need for continued or increased funding and support for military orthopaedic surgeons and extremity trauma research efforts.

Guidelines for the prevention of infection after combat-related injuries.

During combat operations, extremities continue to be the most common sites of injury with associated high rates of infectious complications. Overall, ∼ 15% of patients with extremity injuries develop osteomyelitis, and ∼ 17% of those infections relapse or recur. The bacteria infecting these wounds have included multidrug-resistant bacteria such as Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing Klebsiella species and Escherichia coli, and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. The goals of extremity injury care are to prevent infection, promote fracture healing, and restore function. In this review, we use a systematic assessment of military and civilian extremity trauma data to provide evidence-based recommendations for the varying management strategies to care for combat-related extremity injuries to decrease infection rates. We emphasize postinjury antimicrobial therapy, debridement and irrigation, and surgical wound management including addressing ongoing areas of controversy and needed research. In addition, we address adjuvants that are increasingly being examined, including local antimicrobial therapy, flap closure, oxygen therapy, negative pressure wound therapy, and wound effluent characterization. This evidence-based medicine review was produced to support the Guidelines for the Prevention of Infections Associated With Combat-Related Injuries: 2011 Update contained in this supplement of Journal of Trauma.