Abstract

Lower extremity blast and fragmentation wounds have been common in the Afghanistan conflict. The lessons learned from managing these high energy wounds are being applied to facilitate wound healing at home and may be of interest to veterinarians, including those working with marine mammals. Shared challenges in wound management may include the presence of foreign bodies, a need for field-friendly tools, and mitigating the risk of infection. With humans, projectile, thermal, and blast mechanisms combine to create wounds that are diffuse, heterogenous, and extensive. Major factors determining the outcome of these high-energy combat injuries are the severity and extension of soft tissue damage. Management considerations of high energy war wounds include primary and serial debridement, the use of subatmospheric wound dressing (SAWD), prevention and treatment of wound infections, and principles and techniques of wound closure. While some management techniques in humans may be applicable to marine mammals, there is also interest in discovering how the extraordinary wound healing abilities in marine mammals may help improve wound healing in humans.