Injured soldiers find relief through massage and other "alternative therapies."
To determine what types of painful conditions affect soldiers during wartime, researchers in the United States and Germany examined 162 soldiers engaged in Operation Iraqi Freedom who were evacuated to pain treatment centers outside the theater of combat. Results of the study, published in the journal of Anesthesia & Analgesia, show that many of the injuries suffered by military personnel during conflict are indeed similar to those sustained by people in the civilian sector. Even more important, the use of alternative therapies in the treatment of pain among injured soldiers appears to be growing, with massage the most common alternative therapy used for pain relief.
All of the soldiers included in the study had been injured during OIF between March 2003 and June 2004, and were medically evacuated to one of two treatment facilities: Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., and Landstuhl Regional Army Medical Center in Landstuhl, Germany. Most of the injured personnel received "consultations for treatment recommendations to be implemented at military treatment facilities located at the patient's home duty station."
Analysis of the complaints showed most soldiers suffered injuries comparable to those that would have been sustained by similarly aged civilians. Not surprisingly, more than half of the pain complaints reported by the soldiers (53 percent) involved the low back. The second most common complaint was "nonradicular extremety pain," which accounted for 23 percent of the presenting complaints.
The most common diagnosis of injury was lumbar herniated disk which, according to the researchers," accounted for almost one-quarter of all pain disorders." Postsurgical pain was the second most common diagnosis, and was experienced by 14 percent of all patients.
More than three dozen treatment modalities were utilized for pain relief; on average, each soldier was treated with 3.5 different therapies. Not surprisingly, drugs were the most popular form of pain relief, beginning with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), which were given to 91 service members. Seventy-nine patients received opiods; 66 patients received some kind of neuropathic pain medication.
Drugs and surgical procedures weren't the only treatment options available, however. According to the study authors, 28 soldiers (17 percent of the study population) were treated with "some type of alternative therapy." The most common alternative therapy offered was therapeutic massage, which was performed on 13 soldiers, and administered more frequently than chiropractic manipulation, acupuncture and glucosamine/chondroitin supplements combined. More than half of these patients treated with alternative therapies (15) were diagnosed with postsurgical pain or lumbar herniated disk before receiving care. In fact, more than one-third of all military personnel diagnosed with postsurgical pain were treated with massage.
The study pointed out the number of injuries suffered during combat was significantly less than the number of non-combat injuries; in fact, only 17 percent of the patients stated they were injured during battle.
Such nonbattle-related injuries, or NBIs, can take a serious toll on overall troop strength in modern warfare. According to the authors, "Among the 21,655 soldiers admitted to army hospitals in Southwest Asia during the Persian Gulf War, acute NBI comprised 25 percent of all hospitalizations, with musculoskeletal conditions ranking second at 13 percent."
Presenting Pain Complaints in Soldiers Injured in Operation Iraqi Freedom* |
Pain Presentation (n=162) | Frequency | Percentage |
Lumbar radicular pain | 49 | 30.2% |
Axial low back pain | 37 | 22.8% |
Nonradicular leg pain | 24 | 14.8% |
Nonradicular arm pain | 16 | 9.9% |
Groin pain | 15 | 9.3% |
Thoracic pain | 10 | 6.2% |
Neck pain | 10 | 6.2% |
Abdominal pain | 8 | 4.9% |
Cervical radicular pain | 6 | 3.7% |
Headache | 6 | 3.7% |
Thoracic radicular pain | 2 | 1.2% |
Polyarthralgia | 1 | 0.6% |
Facial pain | 1 | 0.6% |
* The percentage of pain complaints is based on the number of patients (162), not the number of presenting symptoms (185). |
Article first seen HERE:
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.