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How surgery changed during WW1 - Coggle Diagram
How surgery changed during WW1
New techniques for the treatment of wounds
A major problem at the time was infections caused by gas gangrene
It was not possible to perform aseptic surgery in dressing stations.
Wound excision
or
debridement
was the
cutting
away of
dead tissues
around the wound. It was done as soon as possible because infection can spread quickly. If any infected tissue had not been removed before the wound was stitched, the infection would spread again
Amputation
was used if antiseptics or wound excision were unsuccessful as it was the only way to deal with infection otherwise.
The
Carrel-Dakin method
used a
sterilized salt solution
in the wound through a tube. The solution
only lasted six hours
so it had to be made when needed.
The Thomas splint
in 1914-15, men with gunshot or scrapnel woulds only had 20% chance of survival
The splint used during this time as the soldier was transferred from the frontline
did not keep the leg rigid
so by the time they reached the casualty clearing station, they would've
lost a lot of blood
and possibly
already developed gas gangrene
in the wound
The
Thomas splint
was the solution and was already available before the start of the war despite only being
introduced in 1916
This splint was designed to
stop the joints from moving
and
increased
the
survival rate
from 20%
to 82%
Mobile x-ray units
X-rays were used from the start of the war to locate bullet fragments
Two x-rays were taken from different angles to allow the surgeon to identify the location of the shrapnel in the body.
Problems with x-rays
They could not detect all objects in the body such as fragments of clothing.
The length of time required to take the x-ray was several minutes which may cause problems depending on the wound
The tubes in x-ray machines were fragile and overheated quickly so they could only be used for about one hour at a time
Three machines had to be used in rotation
Blood transfusions