The last days: The medical response of United States and allied military teams during the Afghanistan Exodus.

Objectives: The objective of this study is to describe the United States and allied military medical response during the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Background: The military withdrawal from Afghanistan concluded with severe hostilities resulting in numerous civilian and military casualties. The clinical care provided by coalition forces capitalized on decades of lessons learned and enabled unprecedented accomplishments.

Dunning-Kruger Effect Between Self-Peer Ratings of Surgical Performance During a MASCAL Event and Pre-Event Assessed Trauma Procedural Capabilities.

Objectives: The research question asked to what extent do self-rated performance scores of individual surgeons correspond to assessed procedural performance abilities and to peer ratings of procedural performance during a mass casualty (MASCAL) event?

Background: Self-assessment using performance rating scales is ubiquitous in surgical education as a proxy for direct measurement of competence. The validity and reliability of self-ratings as competency measures are susceptible to cognitive biases such as Dunning-Kruger effects, which describe how individuals over/underestimate their own performance compared to assessments from independent sources. The ability of surgeons to accurately self-assess their procedural performance remains undetermined.

Preliminary Experience With the Human Acellular Vessel: A Descriptive Case Series Detailing Early Use of a Bioengineered Blood Vessel for Arterial Repair.

Background: An infection-resistant, immediately available conduit for trauma and urgent vascular reconstruction remains a critical need for successful limb salvage. While autologous vein remains the gold standard, vein-limited patients and size mismatch are common issues. The Human Acellular Vessel (HAV) (Humacyte, Inc.

Management and outcomes of wartime cervical carotid artery injury.

Background: Cervical carotid artery injuries entail high morbidity and mortality and are technically challenging to repair. This retrospective study describes the management and outcomes of cervical carotid injuries sustained during the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Methods: The Department of Defense Trauma Registry was queried to identify US military personnel who sustained battle-related cervical carotid injury between January 2002 and December 2015.

Infraclavicular Thoracic Outlet Decompression Compared to Supraclavicular Thoracic Outlet Decompression for the Management of Venous Thoracic Outlet Syndrome.

Background: The treatment of venous thoracic outlet syndrome (VTOS) requires surgical decompression often combined with catheter-directed thrombolysis and venoplasty. Surgical options include transaxillary, supraclavicular, or infraclavicular approaches to first rib resection. The optimal method, however, has yet to be defined.

Epidemiology of Upper Extremity Vascular Injury in Contemporary Combat.

Background: The incidence of wartime upper-extremity vascular injury (UEVI) has been stable for the past century. The objective of this study is to provide a contemporary review of wartime UEVI, including epidemiologic characterization and description of early limb loss.

Methods: The Department of Defense Trauma Registry (DoDTR) was queried to identify US service members who sustained a battle-related UEVI in Afghanistan between January 2009 and December 2015.

A contemporary, 7-year analysis of vascular injury from the war in Afghanistan.

Objective: Vascular injury is a leading cause of death and disability in military and civilian trauma. Although a previous interim study defined the distribution of vascular injury during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a contemporary epidemiologic assessment has not been performed. The objective of this study was to provide a current analysis of vascular injury during the final 7 years of the war in Afghanistan, including characterization of anatomic injury patterns, mechanisms of injury, and methods of acute management.