News & Events

Announcements for 2006

November 3, 2006 (historical)

NIAMS Funds War Injury Supplement

Extremity War Injuries: State of the Art and Future Directions , a supplement of the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (JAAOS) partly funded by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), has been published. The supplement covers such issues as wound management, fractures, infection treatment, amputee care, early extremity trauma care and the direction of future research into extremity war injuries. It also discusses levels of care needed to treat such injuries, an overview of combat orthopaedics and a history of war injury treatment, and points out advances that have been achieved.

In the introduction, AAOS Board of Directors Co-Chairs Andrew Pollak, M.D., and Jason Calhoun, M.D., stress the timely need for research on managing wartime extremity injuries. They also mention that "advancements in body armor technology have decreased mortality from blast injuries in recent conflicts, and consequently have increased the incidence of mangled extremities." Open fractures caused by combat injuries are among the most serious in terms of both human and medical costs. Open long-bone fractures require the longest hospital stay. Among battlefield casualties, approximately 19 to 22 percent are open fractures.

The supplement resulted from the January 2006 symposium "Extremity War Injuries: State of the Art and Future Directions"--also partly funded by NIAMS. It can be accessed at http://www.jaaos.org/content/vol14/issue10/index.dtl.

The mission of the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), a part of the Department of Health and Human Services' National Institutes of Health, is to support research into the causes, treatment and prevention of arthritis and musculoskeletal and skin diseases; the training of basic and clinical scientists to carry out this research; and the dissemination of information on research progress in these diseases. For more information about NIAMS, call the information clearinghouse at (301) 495-4484 or (877) 22-NIAMS (free call) or visit the NIAMS Web site at http://www.niams.nih.gov/default.asp