Anorectal injury in pelvic blast

The signature injury of the Afghanistan campaign has, amongst other things, included an increased incidence of destructive anorectal injury. There is no significant body of evidence about this type of injury on which to base management strategies. This review examines the historical military data, later civilian reports, many of which have challenged the military dogmas of Vietnam, and the spartan contemporaneous military data which does not particularly address pelviperineal blast injury. There is no evidence to support a move away from the doctrine of the four D's (diversion, distal washout, drainage and direct repair), but sound surgical judgement remains the mainstay of managing these challenging and highly morbid injuries.