Fitness to Serve in the Armed Forces and Internal Medicine: A Retrospective Study

Assessment of the medical fitness to serve in the armed forces has two objectives: to prevent the military operations from being jeopardized by a medical issue, and to protect soldiers from the sequelae of diseases that could become complicated in the operational field, especially in overseas operations where soldiers are exposed to a remote setting and a long evacuation time. Little is known about fitness decisions for soldiers with systemic or autoimmune diseases. Therefore, we conducted a single-center retrospective study of internal medicine fitness decisions.

All the fitness decisions discussed from September 2019 to December 2020 in our department of internal medicine were reviewed. Gender, age, army or service, rank, garrison and health topic were collected from the medical files. Our Military Hospital local ethics committee, in accordance with the French law, approved this study.

There were 41 cases, involving 31 men and 10 women (mean age: 31 years), presenting with autoimmune or systemic diseases, metabolic disorders, thrombophilia, congenital or acquired malformations or organ failure, miscellaneous nephropathies, or hemogram abnormalities. Four patients were taking immunosuppressive agents, 3 biologics, and 4 anticoagulants. Among the 15 civilians requiring medical fitness assessment to enlistment, 6 were declared fit. They presented with a history of juvenile idiopathic arthritis with intermediate uveitis without relapse for 7 years, Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome type II with ectopic kidney, solitary kidney with normal renal function and with hypertension, isolated proteinuria, proteinuria with microscopic hematuria, and muscular fibrolipoma with a history of surgical treatment of a vascular malformation. Among the 26 patients already enlisted in the armed forces, 9 were referred for assessment of medical fitness to serve overseas. Two soldiers were assessed as fit without restrictions; one presented with a history of a single episode of deep vein thrombosis after surgery, and the other had a history of monoclonal gammopathy of renal significance without relapse and without treatment for 8 years. Four soldiers were assessed as fit only for overseas territories with sanitary structures similar to mainland France. They presented with immunoglobulin A (IgA) nephropathy and treatment with angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor, mevalonate kinase deficiency and treatment with anakinra, chronic idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, and history of unilateral partial renal infarction. The 17 other soldiers were referred for dispensation, long-sickness leave granting, or for specification toward administrative coding of their disease.

We have described the first exhaustive study of specialized fitness decisions referred to an internal medicine department. One-third of the referred patients were declared fit to serve in the armed forces. Further studies are needed to confirm these results, as our study was monocentric. Fitness decisions must take into account the disease, the treatment, and the operational field characteristics. Soldiers with systemic diseases controlled by immunosuppressive agents can serve in tropical areas if they can reach adequate sanitary structures in a short time. The knowledge of systemic diseases as well as the skillfulness of the internists, which are regularly projected to the operational fields, allows them to provide pragmatic fitness expertise to myriad complex situations.