C. C. Ungley's “The Immersion Foot Syndrome”—A Commentary

摘要

I have chosen to review this article by Ungley et al on immersion foot syndrome because it is a ground-breaking comparison with trench foot. These nonfreezing cold injuries were often thought to be the same as frostbite. They have been of paramount importance to military campaigns throughout history. Ungley et al make a strong argument that the freezing injury of frostbite is different from that of both trench foot and immersion foot, but the latter two are essentially the same injury. Immersion injury occurs by direct immersion in water from sitting in a water-logged life raft or hanging in a life-jacket. Trench foot occurs on land from wet boots and socks.