{"id":21712,"date":"2019-06-06T20:53:49","date_gmt":"2019-06-06T20:53:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/06\/06\/with-amputations-on-the-decline-could-doctors-forget-how-to-do-them\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T06:13:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T06:13:24","slug":"with-amputations-on-the-decline-could-doctors-forget-how-to-do-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2019\/06\/06\/with-amputations-on-the-decline-could-doctors-forget-how-to-do-them\/","title":{"rendered":"With amputations on the decline, could doctors forget how to do them?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Doctors aren\u2019t performing as many combat-related amputations these days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But with that good news for service members comes one potential downside: Military medical professionals could forget how to treat patients with missing limbs. That happened after the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs time goes on some of the skills might atrophy,\u201d said Jason Etchegaray, the lead author of a new report<\/a> from the RAND Corporation. To prevent that from happening, the report lays out a series of recommendations for the military medical community on keeping their skills sharp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through interviews with providers, patients and family members, as well as input from field experts, the researchers identified a series of basic skills that health care professionals need to effectively treat amputees. These range from technical expertise to bedside manner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s very important because we don\u2019t know what the next war is going to be like, and we don\u2019t know when that\u2019s going to occur,\u201d Etchegaray said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Military Health System\u2019s Extremity Trauma and Amputation Center of Excellence, or EACE, commissioned the study and plans to use RAND\u2019s recommendations as a starting point for future training of doctors, physical therapists, psychiatrists, prosthetists and others who work with amputees throughout the rehabilitation process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t want to repeat what had occurred following the Vietnam conflict, where the capabilities and the competencies to provide amputee care were slowly lost over time and then we had to relearn those all over again,\u201d said EACE Director John Shero. \u201cWe want to make sure that our casualties in the future get at least as good, if not better, (treatment) from that future conflict as our wounded warriors receive and have received over the past series of years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the nearly two decades since 9-11, the Defense Department has treated 1,724 patients with major limb amputations from deployment injuries, Shero said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The number of service members with combat-related amputations has declined sharply since 2011, when the number of amputations was at a peak of 260, according to the report. There were three in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Patients are treated primarily at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center<\/a> in Maryland, Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio and the Naval Medical Center San Diego, which have treatment centers specifically designed for military amputees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These centers take a multidisciplinary approach to patient treatment, requiring regular meetings between health care providers across a variety of services who treat the same patient \u2014 not something you typically see in civilian settings, Shero said.<\/p>\n\n\n\t