Battlefield anesthesia: advances in patient care and pain management

Expeditionary maneuver warfare and the asymmetric battlefield have forced changes in the traditional methods with which we deliver anesthesia and surgery to the wounded. Although in many ways similar to how we have operated on the wounded for the past half century, new advances in diagnostic and therapeutic modalities and doctrinal shifts have changed the face of the battlefield hospital. In this article, the authors discuss these changes in regard to anesthetic care for surgical and pain management for wounded airmen, sailors, soldiers, and marines.