title: War Wounds - Changing Concepts.
abstract: The accepted standard treatment of war wounds through the last century has been debridement and delayed primary closure. However, recently, there has been a renewed Interest In primary closure of these wounds. 1481 war wounds were managed by the authors and out of 789 soft tissue injuries, 389 (47%) were closed primarily (group 1) after meticulous debridement and 220 (28%) underwent delayed primary closure (group 2). The infection rate in group 1 was 4.87% compared to 6.36% in group 2. The average hospital stay in group 1 was 15 days, significantly shorter by 10 days than in group 2. In the war zone both time and resources are at a premium and primary closure of selected wounds offers a better alternative to delayed primary closure.
authors.affiliation: Professor and Head, Department of Surgery, Armed Forces Medical College, Pune - 411 040.
authors.forename: B M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Nagpal
authors.affiliation: Senior Adviser (Surgery), INHS Asvini, Colaba, Mumbai - 400 005.
authors.forename: Capt Sk
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Mohanty
authors.affiliation: Senior Adviser (Surgery), Military Hospital, Jabalpur.
authors.forename: G L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Tiwari
authors.affiliation: Graded Specialist (Surgery), Military Hospital, Jabalpur.
authors.forename: Rps
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gambhir
authors.affiliation: Commandant, Military Hospital, Agra.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Singh
keywords: Debridement; Delayed primary closure; Primary closure; War Wounds