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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Traumatic Brain Injuries

The Washington Post has a good (and scary) article on TBI's.
About 1,800 U.S. troops, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs, are now suffering from traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) caused by penetrating wounds. But neurologists worry that hundreds of thousands more -- at least 30 percent of the troops who've engaged in active combat for four months or longer in Iraq and Afghanistan -- are at risk of potentially disabling neurological disorders from the blast waves of IEDs and mortars, all without suffering a scratch.....

"TBIs from Iraq are different," said P. Steven Macedo, a neurologist and former doctor at the Veterans Administration. Concussions from motorcycle accidents injure the brain by stretching or tearing it, he noted. But in Iraq, something else is going on. "When the sound wave moves through the brain, it seems to cause little gas bubbles to form," he said. "When they pop, it leaves a cavity. So you are littering people's brains with these little holes."

At this point, we just don't know.

posted by mikevotes at 7:37 AM

6 Comments:

  • "When the sound wave moves through the brain, it seems to cause little gas bubbles to form," he said. "When they pop, it leaves a cavity. So you are littering people's brains with these little holes."

    That's really scary shit. It's a disturbing article.

    In Bob Woodruff's book there is a claim that the injury rate to death rate in Iraq among American and British troops is 16 to 1, while in Vietnam it was 3 to 1. This is because of better army, more mobile and capable field medical, and faster battlefield transportation (undoubtably aided by the difference in the battlefield itself). I could not find confirmation of this number, but if true it means that by the numbers the fighting in Iraq is more severe than the fighting was at the same stage in Vietnam. Less people are dying, but not less are being hit with explosives and small arms.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:26 AM  

  • correction, I meant better armor, not better army.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:27 AM  

  • I've wondered about that 16 to 1 statistic as well. Let me add to your argument that roughly half the wounded in Iraq never leave theater and return to duty. I don't know the equivalent statistic for Vietnam, but that would seem to indicate to me that a good bit of the wounded number is relatively small injuries.

    (Let me make a point not to diminish that, but in relation to the KIA/WIA ratio, if soldiers have more ready access to medical, they will get more smaller injuries treated.)

    I'm not sure about the fighting being more severe. I would argue that it's of a very different type.

    In Vietnam, most of the casualties were from the unit to unit "fronted" combat where there was a designated enemy attacking or defending. The small unit battles tended to finish alot more with one side overrunning anoter which would lead to far more fatalities, not to mention artillery shelling positions.

    Whereas in Iraq, it's very often ambush, engage, and withdraw meaning that the US troops are frequently left with the remainder of their unit meaning field medical and evacuation are nearly immediately available.


    Thanks for the thoughtful comment.

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 9:34 AM  

  • Brain is the most outstanding organ. It is not like other organs and hence we need to prevent it from injury.
    los angeles brain injury attorney

    By Blogger Padmanaban, at 1:53 AM  

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