Radiology on Board the PLA(N) Peace Ark Hospital Ship During a Humanitarian Medical Relief Mission to the Philippines

From November 24 to December 10, 2013, the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy [PLA(N)] hospital ship Peace Ark was deployed to the Leyte Gulf in the Philippines to provide humanitarian medical relief in Tacloban after Typhoon Haiyan. The purpose of this study was to assess the radiological services aboard the ship to provide guidance for future missions.

A retrospective review was performed on a cohort of 109 patients who underwent digital radiography (DR) and 59 patients who underwent computed tomography (CT) scans during a 16-day period during a humanitarian medical relief mission to the Philippines. Patient demographics, DR findings, and CT findings were analyzed.

The mean age of the 109 DR patients was 39.7 years for the 64 males and 43.7 years for the 45 females. A total of 148 DR examinations were performed of the chest (n=109), extremities (n=35), and spine (n=4). The mean age of the 59 CT patients was 43.8 years for the 32 males and 49.1 years for the 27 females. A total of 72 CT scans were performed of the head and neck (n=36), thorax (n=24), abdomen (n=5), spine (n=4), and extremities (n=3). The imaging findings mainly included disaster-related and non-disaster-related fractures, pulmonary tuberculosis, pulmonary infection, acute brain infarction, intracranial hematoma, and occupying lesions.

Analysis of radiological services during a humanitarian medical relief mission to the Philippines provided meaningful information for future humanitarian medical relief missions.