Small Wars Journal

Study: Air Evacuating Casualties Might Do More Harm Than Good

Mon, 11/30/2015 - 7:24am

Study: Air Evacuating Casualties Might Do More Harm Than Good by Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Washington Post

Over the last 15 years, the United States has flown its wounded troops out of combat zones to hospitals around the globe. The logic: get those hurt in places where medical supplies are limited to places where they are not. The fastest way to do this? By air.

Yet according to a new, first-of-its-kind study conducted by the University of Maryland School of Medicine, rapid air evacuation has the potential to cause more damage to those patients suffering from an extremely prevalent battlefield affliction–traumatic brain injury.

More than 330,000 U.S. service members have suffered from traumatic brain injuries, one of the leading causes of death and disability for those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the study that was published Monday in The Journal of Neurotrama…

Read on.