Study: Change in transfusion protocol cuts troop death rate

Medical staff at a U.S. military field hospital tend to an Afghan soldier wounded in a rocket-propelled grenade attack. In 2006, doctors in combat hospitals implemented a protocol known as "damage control resuscitation," which called for a change in the ratios of blood components given to hemorrhaging patients, such as red-blood cells, plasma and platelets. The change resulted in fewer deaths from the battlefield, according to a report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Photo: Joshua L. DeMotts, Stars and Stripes.


Interesting study results from the Journal of the American Medical Association, via Stars and Stripes.

Fewer warfighters have died from bleeding complications in forward-based hospitals since 2006, when the military changed its protocol of blood transfusions used for such cases, according to a study published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
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The DCR ["damage control resuscitation"] protocol is now widely used in civilian trauma centers, said Dr. John B. Holcomb, a surgeon with the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston who retired from the Army in 2008 after serving 23 years.

“Everybody says that the silver lining that comes out war is improved trauma care, and I think this war is no exception,” Holcomb said.

There's much more at the link.