The Colorado statesman., 1917-09-22
Physical Disasters of War Ne
cessitate New Alignment of
Medical Service.
FIGHTERS ENTITLED TO BEST
Surgeon General With Help Of Council
of Defense Plans the Organization
of Units Devoted to
Specialized Surgery.


thorized the following:
The physical disasters which the
present war occasions are more severe
and more specialized than those OF any
other war of which history makes rec
ord. In order that these disasters be
mitigated and checked, it is evident
that there must be a new alignment of
medical and surgical service. The
men who fight have right to expect
that the physical distress which such
combat entails shall be alleviated by
means as scientifically accurate as
those which can be commanded by the
civil population.
To this problem the surgeon general
has addressed himself, and, with the
sympathetic interest and support of
the medical section of the council of
national defense, has authorized, as
one of the many means to be employed
In this regard, the formation of units
devoted to the surgery of the head,
to wit, the surgery of the brain; the
surgery of the eye; the surgery of the
ear, nose, throat; and the surgery of
the mouth.
Formation of Units.
The justification of the organization
of such units reside in the fact that
their component parts represent spe-
cial departments of surgery which In
recent years have made such notable
advances that their practice, conduct
ed by those who are trained along
these special lines. has become an es-
sential part of the scheme of general
medical neurological and surgical
work, and especially of military sur
gerry in the widest acceptation of that
term. They are gathered thus into one
unit because they represent natural
selection, each supplementing and aid
ing the other in an effort to restore
the individual to physical well-being.
More than this, they lend to the de-
partments of general surgery, of gen.
eral medicine, and of neurology re-
finement and precision in diagnosis
which in many problems is the essen
tial forerunner of satisfying medical
and operative therapeutic results. The
vital necessity of opthalmoscopic exam
ination by the opthalmologist is the
work of the brain surgeon, the need of
prompt release by the brain surgeon of
increased intracranial pressure to save
eyesight; the value of expert examina-
ton of the ears by the trained otholo-
gist in the elucidation of the prob
lens of neurology and cerebral sur
gerry; the need of search by the expert
rhinologist and oral surgeon for foci
of infection in the accessory sinuses,
the tonsillar tissues, and the dental
areas-in short, the investigation of
what has aptly been called the entire
cephalic mucous membrane-are so
well known that 1t is useless to elabo-
rate the catalogue or further empha-
size the fact. For years this type of
specialized and expert work has been
at the disposal of the practice of medi-
cine and surgery in civil life; for the
first time in history it has become an
integral part of the practice of mill
tary medicine and surgery.
Specialized Surgery.
Evidently the service of such special
ized surgery as has been described
may proceed along three lines:
1. Immediate service, or what is or
dinarily known as first aid, to be given
at the first dressing station. Time is
of vital Importance in dealing with
many head injuries, involving LESSONS
of its special organs, notably of the
eye, and many eyes have been saved
which otherwise would have been lost
where it has been possible to act at
once. AS to the accuracy of this state
ment, all eye surgeons who have been
at the front will testify.
2. Later service in the base hospital
where all operative procedure of these
types of special surgery can be brought
into deliberate action. The triumphs
of oral surgery in particular are mat
ters of common knowledge and of sci
entific record, and the same is true of
the procedures of cerebral surgery and
of those of the eye and ear.
3. Final service in special hospitals
devoted to reconstruction and re-edu-
cation. In such hospitals the work OF
the department of the surgery of the
head will find and has found one of
its widest and most important fields |
of action, not only in individual work |
but in the work devoted to those who |
must be trained for special duties in |
these regards. For the purpose of |
making a personnel available for the |
tasks which have been briefly outlined, |
a committee has been formed which |
has mobilized the material according |
to the plans which follow.