Nevertheless, their extremity amputation rate (less than 5%)

was much less than ours (14%). The decision for limb amputation is more difficult than it seems. We tried at the early period of the war to save as much limbs as we could but we learned later that this cannot be achieved all the time. Sometimes, early amputation can be the best option for some patients that saves their lives. Amputation rate depends on many factors including the severity of limb injury, mechanism of injury, ischaemia time, presence of associated injuries, and disaster situations click here when treating mass causalities [17]. It is a major principle in management of war-injured patients that saving a life comes before saving a limb. Mine injuries of the lower limbs are specifically more notorious and cause internal limb damage more than what appears on the skin. The blast injury of the mine causes high pressure that is transmitted proximally between the muscles causing major damage to the tissues. We did not cover the vascular graft of the popliteal region with healthy viable tissue in two patients because of loss of all superficial DZNeP ic50 tissues. We learned that this is a major problem that can lead to limb loss even with a successful graft because the graft has to be covered by viable tissue to prevent dehydration

and infection. A rotational gastrocnemius flap if used to cover the popliteal vessels [18] could have possibly saved two secondarily amputated limbs having popliteal injuries in our series. Limitations of the study The data of the present study is a historical data of our Gulf War selleck chemical Registry. Nevertheless, we think that it is very important to share this information with others. Civilian surgeons suddenly practicing war surgery without previous experience in this field tend to repeat the same old mistakes that surgeons learned from previous wars. We could not define the exact time between vascular injury and surgery in majority of the cases. Nevertheless, we think that majority were operated within 6 hours of injury because fighting occurred very

close to our hospital and the evacuation time was less than one hour [4]. MRIP There were no extensive diagnostic radiological procedures and wounds were explored in the operating theatre as soon as possible depending mainly on the clinical findings. There have been many technical developments in the last two decade including principles of damage control surgery, use of portable ultrasound machines, and endovascular techniques. Despite that, we have recently noticed in the recent war conflicts in our region that most of these advanced techniques are not affordable except damage control surgery. Basic principles of using the least expensive surgical methods that help the maximum number of patients is still the major principle. We did not use temporary vascular shunts for peripheral vascular injuries.