Extremity injuries in soldiers during the conflict in Mali: experience of Togo Level two Hospital

The aim of this study was to analyse war-related and non-war-related extremity injuries in soldiers in the Mali conflict.

This prospective study was performed from 1 May 1 to 31 December 2014. It concerned extremity injuries in soldiers treated at Togo Level 2 Hospital.

Seventy-nine patients with an average age of 31.19 years were assessed. Among them, 50 were admitted after war injury and 29 from nonwar injury. Most war-related injuries were due to improvised explosive devices (IEDs) (36 %); road traffic accidents (51.72 %) were the main mechanism of non-war injury. A total of 125 injuries were analysed. Limb fractures were identified in 37 patients (29.6 %), and 22 cases (59.46 %) were open fractures. Twenty-six (20.8 %) patients had soft tissue wounds. The other injuries were sprains (18.4 %), muscle contusions (15.2 %), dislocations (8.8 %), traumatic amputations (4 %) and burns (3.2 %). Surgical debridement and external fixator application were the most frequently performed surgical procedures. Thirty-nine per cent of patients were evacuated to a level 3 hospital for better care.

The severity of injuries and their rapid treatment require orthopaedic surgeons to have high levels of surgical experience and knowledge pertaining to military or disaster surgical doctrine.