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Imaging Thresholds of Salvageability of Life, Limb, and Eyesight

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Combat Radiology

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Abstract

Important considerations in triage and re-triage are identifying the most critical casualties and separating out those who can be saved, and injuries so severe (expectant) that trying to save would unnecessarily drain resources from those who could live. The challenge of recent advances now saving more lives than ever is shifting the mortality threshold toward the more severe injuries; many considered expectant in prior conflicts and put to the side to die in the past are now saved. Perhaps, the most dramatic example of this is in head injuries with advent of faster transport times to neurosurgical capability on the battlefield as mentioned previously, and MDCT availability with correlations showing better survival predictability. Additionally, extremities not previously salvageable now are readily diagnosed by CTA (for example) with volume rendered 3D and multiplanar reformations with tools such as vessel tracking.

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Acknowledgments

I thank Sofia Echelmeyer for her excellent artwork. I would also like to thank Adrianne Noe, Director at National Museum of Health and Medicine/AFIP, and Tim Clarke, Jr. (Contractor, American Registry of Pathology), Deputy Director (Communications), National Museum of Health and Medicine for donation of the images in this chapter and the first chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Associate Professor Radiology and Radiological Sciences Associate Professor Military and Emergency Medicine, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Les R. Folio DO, MPH, FAOCR Col (ret), USAF, MC, SFS

Authors
  1. Les R. Folio DO, MPH, FAOCR Col (ret), USAF, MC, SFS
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Folio, L.R. (2010). Imaging Thresholds of Salvageability of Life, Limb, and Eyesight. In: Combat Radiology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5854-9_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5854-9_6

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-5853-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-5854-9

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