Sunday, July 29, 2007
Prosthetics, the new growth industry
In Iraq, one of the many new areas for growth is the replacement devices for amputees. All wars destroy limbs but the frequent use of bombs, whether car or aerial, has result in a higher percentage of lost limbs, with legs comprising the largest number.
'Eighty per cent of the injuries that we see here are to the extremities,' says Lieutenant Colonel Wayne Mosley, an orthopaedic surgeon at the military hospital in Mosul that treats US soldiers, Iraqi civilians and members of the Iraqi security forces, and runs a clinic for recent Iraqi amputees. 'We see a lot of open long bone injuries or vascular injuries that require amputation. We do a lot of amputations below the knee. It is difficult to know how many amputees there are in Iraq, but I would say it is probably the number one operation performed.'US casualties have access to the latest treatments of such wounds and the latest advances in prostheses. While the Iraqis have not yet been condemned to whittling out the crook in a tree, the available resources don't come close to that of the US military. Rest assured that if peace ever comes to this benighted country, they may soon lead the world in prosthetic advances.
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