Treatment of wounded in the combat zone

Authors presented their own experiences in treating 735 wounded in high-intensity combat zones in the territories of former Yugoslavia during 1991 to 1992. The mobile field hospital with surgical crews was situated 5 to 10 km from the front line, and its basic task had been continuous triage, immediate resuscitation with vital surgical aid, as well as organization of adequate primary and secondary air evacuation. At the field hospital level, fresh wounds were explored according to principles of war surgery, and major surgical interventions were performed in 3.3% of the wounded. Patients with massive hematothorax were treated with autotransfusion. Mortality at this primary level, field hospital was 0.75% with primary immediate resuscitation and 1.9% with immediate evacuation. We concluded that immediate resuscitation with delayed transport had advantages, compared with fast evacuation of only the wounded.