China's doctors are hoping to boost the survival rate of accident victims by up to 20 percent using new preliminary treatment methods taught by the military for war wounds.
The "damage control" concept could raise survival rates of people injured in traffic, mine and construction accidents by ten to 20 percent on average, said Li Jieshou, director of the Research Institute of Surgery of the General Hospital of Nanjing Military Area.
Li said traditional method was definitive surgery, such as removing part or all of the wounded organs as soon as possible.
There was nothing wrong with the concept theoretically, as early definitive care of isolated injuries led to more rapid recovery, said Li.
However, medical experts were increasingly realizing that the benefit of definitive surgery must be weighed against the physiological risk of prolonged operative time and increased surgical blood loss.
The damage control concept allowed just enough surgery to prevent loss of life or limb while postponing more definitive procedures until the patient's condition had stabilized, said Li.
"More surgery is required under the new method, but the damage to the patient can be kept to the minimum," Li said.
Modern military weapons had been developed to cause massive injuries instead of deaths in a bid to psychologically destroy the fighting capacity of the enemy.
"Therefore, we have to find a way to better treat massive war wounds," Li said.
With 1.5 million yuan (197,350 U.S. dollars) in funding from Nanjing Military Area and the General Logistics Department, researchers of the General Hospital of Nanjing Military Area spent four years on the project.
A guidebook on the damage control concept will be published in 2008 for the use of the Chinese army and the concept has been introduced to civilian doctors through seminars and training courses, said Li Yousheng, head researcher of the project.
In China, injury has been in the top five causes of death since 1995. More than 14,000 Chinese died from industrial injuries in 2002 and the number increases by seven percent each year. Traffic accidents left 98,000 people dead and nearly 470,000 injured in 2005.
Many of the injured died because they failed to receive proper treatment, Li Yousheng said.
The Nanjing general hospital has held more than 20 seminars and trained more than 5,000 doctors and nurses in damage control treatment since December 2005.
Source: Xinhua
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