Wilderness Medical Society Practice Guidelines for Basic Wound Management in the Austere Environment

摘要

The skin is the largest organ system in the human body. In remote and wilderness environments, caring for injuries to the skin is a fundamental necessity. The reported incidence of injury varies considerably. A review of the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) incident database from 1998 to 2002 included 1940 incidents of injuries, illness, and near-miss accidents over 630,937 program-days.1 Nonathletic soft tissue injuries accounted for 31% of the incidents. In emergency departments, 12 million visits for traumatic wounds are reported yearly.2 Flores et al3 reported 14.8% of 100,000 outdoor recreational injuries were lacerations. In a study of medical incidents and evacuations in the wilderness setting, Mclntosh et al4 noted that 4% constituted injuries to skin or wound infections, 3.7% were burns, and 2.7% were blisters.