Page 7 - Journal of Special Operations Medicine - Fall 2017

by Allison Esposito, Managing Editor

CASE REPORTS Surgical Treatment Team Operational Concept: Experience
of the 102nd Forward Surgical Team in Operation Freedom’s
In the first case report in this issue, Boni and Amann report the Sentinel 2015–2016,” Benavides et al. report the experience of
case of a 27-year-old male U.S. Marine who sustained a heat- the 102nd FST during deployment to Afghanistan in support
related illness resulting in fulminant liver failure and perma- of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel/Resolute Support Mission,
nent disability in “Exertional Heat Illness Resulting in Acute which provided small, ultramobile surgical teams supporting
Liver Failure and Liver Transplantation.” Schauer et al. report SOF teams conducting train, advise, and assist operations.
that four cases of prehospital surgical airway cannulation on
the battlefield demonstrated three successful uses of prehospi- “Estimation of Dog-Bite Risk and Related Morbidity Among
tal cricothyrotomy kits, in “Prehospital Cricothyrotomy Kits Personnel Working With Military Dogs,” by Schermann, re-
Used in Combat: A Case Series.” And Levri and colleagues ports on military dog bites among soldiers serving in the Israel
discuss the “Use of Acetylsalicylic Acid in the Prehospital Set- Defense Force Military Working Dogs Unit. In “Prehospital
ting for Suspected Acute Ischemic Stroke.” Administration of Tranexamic Acid by Ground Forces in
Afghanistan: The Prehospital Trauma Registry Experience,”
FEATURE ARTICLES Schauer and colleagues describe the prehospital administra-
tion of TXA by ground forces in the Afghanistan combat
In “Unwrapping a First Aid Tourniquet From Its Plastic Wrap- theater.
per With and Without Gloves Worn: A Preliminary Study,”
Kragh and fellow researchers provide data on unwrapping “A Comparison of Ventilation Rates Between a Standard Bag-
a packaged limb tourniquet from its plastic wrapper while Valve-Mask and a New Design in a Prehospital Setting During
wearing different types of gloves. Because already unwrapped Training Simulations,” by Costello and colleagues, investigates
tourniquets require no time to unwrap, unwrapping data may Combat Medical Systems ’s new bag-valve-mask designed to
®
provide insights into the issue of having tourniquets unwrapped limit ventilation rates.
when stowed in a first aid kit of a Serviceperson at war.

®
Cox and Rall conducted an “Evaluation of XSTAT and
®
QuickClot Combat Gauze in a Swine Model of Lethal Junc-
®
tional Hemorrhage in Coagulopathic Swine.” And in “A De-
scriptive Analysis of Occupational Fatalities Due to Felonious
Loftus and his group discuss “Combat Trousers as Effective Assault Among U.S. Law Enforcement Officers During Tac-
Improvised Pelvic Binders: A Comparative Cadaveric Study.” tical Incidents, 1996–2014,” Thompson et al. conclude that
“[d]evelopment of a law enforcement trauma registry, includ-
ing “near-miss” events, is critical for improving the training
and safety of law enforcement personnel and the communities
they serve.”
Petersen and his team “reviewed the evolution of training sce-
narios within one Pararescue team since 2008 and codified
various tools used to
simulate physical find-
As the “transition to the highly expeditious Golden Hour Off- ings and drive medical
set Surgical Transport Team (GHOST-T) now offers highly exercises as part of sce-
mobile surgical assets in nontraditional operating rooms, the nario-based training”
content of the surgical instrument sets has also transformed to in “Optimization of
accommodate this change.’ Hale and her team discuss and pro- Simulation and Mou-
vide lists of “Surgical Instrument Sets for Special Operations lage in Military-Related
Expeditionary Surgical Teams.” In “The Golden Hour Offset Medical Training.”

5