Topic:Military medicine

From Wikiversity

Welcome to the Wikiversity Department of Military Medicine.

Contents 1 Department description 2 Military Medicine in Hot Weather Environments 3 Military Medicine in Cold Weather Environments 4 Military Dermatology

[edit] Department description

Military medicine is focused around health care support to military operations. This encompasses medicine that is before or after an operational deployment (such as care of the service member while in garrison) and medicine while deployed on expeditionary operations.

Many topics in military medicine overlap with civilian medicine and the field of military medicine is interdisciplinary. Most practitioners of military medicine are trained in the realm of civilian medicine first and then undergo training in the various military medicine centric topics.

Topics with a unique focus include:

Military Medicine Pre and Post Deployment

  - Recruit Medicine 
  - Military Medical Ethics 
  - Rehabilitation Medicine 
  - Military Occupational Health 
  - Mobilization and Pre-Deployment Medicine 

Operational Military Medicine

  - Military Preventative Medicine 
  - Care of the Casualty 
        - Emergency War Surgery 
        - Tactical Combat Casualty Care
        - Field Trauma Management 
        - Military Dermatology 
  - Environmental Medicine 
        - Hot Weather 
        - Cold Weather 
        - Jungle 
        - Mountain 
        - Dive Medicine 
        - Shipboard Medicine 
        - Flight Medicine 
  - Special Operations Medicine 
  - Nuclear Biological and Chemical Defence Medicine 
  - Military Psychiatry 
  - Medical Operations Planning 
  - Humanitarian Medicine 
  - Disaster Medicine

[edit] Military Medicine in Hot Weather Environments

Military clinicians practicing medicine in warm or hot weather environments (such as the desert) must have specialized knowledge on how to predict, prevent, and treat medical problems related to the heat.

This course will provide an overview of the problems that heat causes with respect to military operations, the human psychological and physiological responses to heat, the prevention of warm weather injuries, the presentation and management of common heat injuries, and military medical operational planning considerations for warm weather environments.

This course contains nine modules:

Module 1: Introduction to Heat Problems in Military Operations

• Definitions and Epidemiology
• The Six “Agents” of Heat Effects
• An overview of Heat Illness
• Host Factors
• Effects of Heat on Operations
• Effects of dehyderation on Operations

Module 2: Human Adaptations

• Importance of Tissue Temperature
• Body Temperature and Heat Transfer
• Balance Between Heat Production and Loss
• Heat Dispersion
• Thermoregulatory Control
• Thermoregulatory Responses in Exercise
• Factors that Alter Heat Tolerance

Module 3: Physical Exercise in Hot Climates

• Body Temperatures
• Physiological Response and Limitations
• Physical Exercise Performance
• Strategies to Sustain Physical Performance
• Biomedical Issues

Module 4: Psychological Aspects

• Psychological Performance in Hot Environments
• Underlying Mechanisms
• Changes in Performance Unique to the Military
• Military Applications

Module 5: Pathophysiology of Heat Stroke

• Pathophysiology of Heatstroke
• Heat Illness
• Prophylaxis and Treatment

Module 6: Prevention of Heat Illness

• Improving Heat Tolerance
• Medical Screening for Risk
• Reducing Heat Stress
• Tools for Prevention

Module 7: Exertional Heat Illness

• Clinical Features
• Heat Illness Syndromes
• Clinical Management
• Epidemiology and Prevention in the Military
• Surveillance and Reporting

Module 8: Case Study: Heat Stroke in the Israeli Defence Force

• A Preventable Condition
• Question of Diagnosis
• Clinical and Pathological Pictures
• Management and Prognosis

Module 9: Practical Medical Aspects of Military Operations

• Heat as a Threat
• Planning for Deployment
• Tips for Medical Officers

[edit] Military Medicine in Cold Weather Environments

Military clinicians practicing medicine in cold weather environments must have specialized knowledge on how to predict, prevent, and treat medical problems related to the cold.

This course will provide an overview of the historical problems of cold weather in a military context, the human psychological and physiological responses to cold, the prevention of cold injuries, the presentation and management of common cold injuries, and military medical operational planning considerations for cold environments.

This course contains nine modules:

Module 1. The Effects of Cold on the Conduct of Warfare.

• Ancient history to World War One
• World War One
• Research up to World War One
• World War Two
• Research during World War Two
• Korean War
• Falklands War
• Historical Trends in Management

Module 2. The Human Physiologic Response to Cold

• Core and Peripheral Temperatures
• Neurological Thermoregulation
• Systems Thermoregulation
• Military Relevant Issues

Module 3. Human Psychological Effects to Cold

• Prolonged Severe Cold Stress
• Hypothermia and Behaviour
• Effects of Mild to Moderate Cold Stress
• Practical Application to Military Operations

Module 4. The Prevention of Cold Injuries

• Cold Injury Potential
• Cold Injury Prevention

Module 5. Freezing Injuries

• Evolution of understanding
• Clinical Picture
• Management
• Squalae
• Evaluation for Return to Duty

Module 6. Non-Freezing Cold Injury

• Clinical Features
• Etiology and Pathogenesis
• Experimental Approaches to Treatment
• Treatment
• Pharmacologic Considerations
• Protection and Prevention

Module 7. Hypothermia

• Epidemiology
• Clinical Picture
• Rewarming Options
• Field Stabilization
• In Hospital Management
• Outcome and Disposition

Module 8. Cold Water Immersion

• Regulation of Body Heat Content
• Physiological Responses to Immersion
• Gender Differences in Thermoregulation
• Protective Clothing
• Near Drowning
• Acclimatization

Module 9. Military Operations in the Cold Environment

• The Role of Preventive Medicine
• Survival Skills for Medical Personnel in a Cold Weather Environment
• Management of Casualties

[edit] Military Dermatology

Military clinicians practicing medicine remote, austere, disaster, or third world locations must have specialized knowledge on how to prevent, diagnose, and treat skin conditions not commonly seen in civilian medical practice.

This course will provide the skilled medical clinician with dermatological pathologies related to military expeditionary operations. It is intended as a review of dermatological topics covered elsewhere in the students medical training and as an introduction to diseases / conditions of military significance that the student may not have been previously exposed.

This course contains twenty modules:

Module 1. Overview of military dermatology and principles of diagnosis

• History of military dermatological problems
• Principles of diagnosis

Module 2. Cold injuries

• Mechanisms of heat loss
• Factors influencing heat loss
• Pathogenesis of cold injury
• Direct cold injury
• Indirect cold injury

Module 3. Heat, humidity, and sun related injuries

• Common problems related to the heat
• Dermatological conditions caused by heat
• Dermatological conditions exacerbated by heat and humidity
• Dermatological conditions caused by sunlight
• Dermatological conditions exacerbated by sunlight

Module 4. Immersion foot

• Foot injuries in cold climates
• Foot injuries in warm climates

Module 5. Dermatology related to chemical, biological, nuclear events

• History of chemical, biological and nuclear warfare
• Dermatology related to a nuclear event
• Dermatology related to a biological event
• Dermatology related to a chemical event

Module 6. Allergic contact dermatitis

• Allergic contact dermatitis
• Irritant contact dermatitis
• Other contact dermatitides
• Diagnosis by location
• Patch and use testing
• Treatment

Module 7. Cutaneous trauma

• Friction blisters
• Cutaneous trauma: A refresher
• Surgical interventions

Module 8. Arthropod and animal bites

• An overview of arthropod bites
• Centipedes and millipedes
• Insects
• Arachnids
• Reptiles
• Cats and Dogs

Module 9. Arthropod infestations as a vector of disease

• Mites and ticks
• Fleas
• Other insects of interest

Module 10. Viral hemorrhagic fevers

• Hemorrhagic fevers - flaviviridae
• Hemorrhagic fevers - bunyaviridae
• Hemorrhagic fevers - arenaviridae
• Hemorrhagic fevers - filoviridae
• Supportive treatments
• Prevention

Module 11. Rickettsial diseases

• Spotted mountain fevers
• Typhus
• Scrub typhus, Q fever, and trench fever
• Ehrlichiosis

Module 12. Tropical parasitic infections

• Protozoal infections
• Helminthic infections

Module 13. Bacterial skin diseases

• Pyodermas
• Plague
• Tularemia
• Diphtheria
• Meningococcal infections
• Lyme Disease

Module 14. Leprosy

• History
• Epidemiology
• Microbiology
• Immunology
• Laboratory diagnosis
• Diagnostic criteria
• Treatment
• Complications
• Vaccination
• Leprosy and HIV

Module 15. Cutaneous tuberculosis

• History
• Epidemiology
• Bacteriology
• Histopathology
• Classification
• Diagnosis
• Treatment
• Prevention
• Tuberculosis and HIV
• Tuberculosis and refugees
• The tuberculids

Module 16. Atypical mycobacterial diseases

• History
• Epidemiology
• Classification systems
• Histopathology
• Mycobacteriology
• Atypical mycobacterial conditions
• Atypical mycobacterial conditions and HIV

Module 17. Superficial fungal diseases

• Military history and epidemiology
• Dermatophytosis
• Candidosis
• Pityrosporum infections
• Other fungal infections of military interest

Module 18. Deep fungal diseases

• Systemic mycoses
• Subcutaneous mycoses
• Opportunistic mycoses

Module 19. Sexually transmitted infections

• Military impact of STI's
• Syphilis
• Gonorrhea
• Chancroid
• Granuloma inguinale
• Lymphogranuloma venereum
• Genital herpes infection
• Genital warts
• Molluscum contagiosum

Module 20. Common skin diseases seen in military practice

• Psoriasis
• Lichen planus
• Atopic dermatitis
• Urticaria
• Pseudofolliculitis barbae
• Cutaneous viral infections

School:Medicine