Military medicine
-
Program overview of a novel cognitive training platform at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC) for service members with subjective cognitive complaints: analysis of patient participation, satisfaction with the program, and perceived areas of improvement. ⋯ This program model may benefit other military facilities looking to provide and assess novel therapeutic approaches.
-
Infectious complications of war wounds are a significant source of mortality and morbidity. Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) guidelines recommend prehospital moxifloxacin, ertapenem, or cefotetan for "all open combat wounds." We describe the prehospital administration of antibiotics to pediatric trauma patients. ⋯ The most frequently administered antibiotics were cephalosporins. TCCC recommended agents for adult prehospital wound prophylaxis were infrequently administered to pediatric casualties. Administration rates of pediatric prehospital wound prophylaxis may be improved with pediatric-specific TCCC guidelines recommending cephalosporins as first-line agents, fielding of a TCCC-oriented Broselow tape, and training prehospital providers on administration of antimicrobials.
-
Service members are exposed to ambient airborne pollutants that have been linked to adverse health effects; however, capabilities to identify and characterize exposures across multi-domain operations are currently lacking. Occupational and environmental exposure monitoring is problematic because there is not a single simple solution, and current technological limitations suggest that simultaneous deployment of multiple devices may be the most effective near-term strategy. ⋯ Evolving technologies and data management strategies may advance personal exposure monitoring in the future. These new devices and methods will likely supplant current technologies, while still using the programmatic and data framework established with early implementation of current commercial off the shelf devices.
-
Point-of-injury (POI) care requires immediate specialized assistance but delays and expertise lapses can lead to complications. In such scenarios, telementoring can benefit health practitioners by transmitting guidance from remote specialists. However, current telementoring systems are not appropriate for POI care. This article clinically evaluates our System for Telementoring with Augmented Reality (STAR), a novel telementoring system based on an augmented reality head-mounted display. The system is portable, self-contained, and displays virtual surgical guidance onto the operating field. These capabilities can facilitate telementoring in POI scenarios while mitigating limitations of conventional telementoring systems. ⋯ This work validates STAR as a viable surgical telementoring platform, which could be further explored to aid in scenarios where life-saving care must be delivered in a prehospital setting.
-
The aim of this study was to quantify the extent of donor-cell-derived myogenesis achieved by a novel surgical technique known as Minimally Invasive Muscle Embedding (MIME). ⋯ In MIME-treated muscles, 22% ± 7% and 78% ± 7% muscle fibers were RFP+ and GFP+, respectively (mean ± standard deviation); and all RFP+ fibers were positive for desmin and dystrophin. Conclusion. We conclude that MIME helps generate muscle fibers of donor origin, in host muscle.