[Surgical activity at the military health service antenna during the Turquoise operation in Rwanda June-August 1994]

The military health service provided a surgery antenna during the two months of the Turquoise operation in Zaire and Rwanda. During this period, the antenna functioned as a back-up station for the French troop and the local populations subjected to various conditions: Rwanda refugees who had escaped the massacres, subjects wounded by canon shots, war wounds, surgery emergencies in the refugee population. There were 315 operations performed including 33% in children and 70% for lesions of the limbs. The activity during the mission was analyzed on the basis of strategy for surgical diagnosis and treatment under local conditions (lack of complementary examinations, limited number of personnel, disrupted families in the refugee population, no possibility for transfer, major cholera and dysentery epidemic...).