Tactical medicine is an action to provide medical assistance to military personnel on the battlefield. They are performed by specially trained staff. His tasks include saving lives, transporting victims, preventing the development of serious conditions.
Competent medical support in the context of hostilities can prevent numerous casualties among military personnel and civilians.
Tactical medicine of irregular warfare
This term arose against the background of the replenishment of the experience and knowledge of Russian military field medicine. Previously, this knowledge was not available to the general public, and methodological manuals were published in a limited edition. Today, tactical medicine is a separate branch of knowledge. It appeared as an accumulation of experience in the conditions of irregular wars.
Today, this direction can be found using the book "Tactical medicine of modern irregular warfare." The benefit will be useful not only to military personnel, but also to the civilian population living in places of military conflict. Its author is Yuri Evich. Tactical medicine in his book is presented as a series of simple and understandable first aid measures with detailed explanations. The author summarized his experience of medical practice in a number of military conflicts.
Classification of injuries and tasks
They are described in detail by the manual on tactical medicine. The main types of damage received in battle are as follows:
- various injuries;
- injuries
- fractures
- burns;
- frostbite.
In addition to providing assistance, a tactical physician is forced to solve a number of related tasks. Among them are such actions:
- transportation of victims;
- enemy fire suppression;
- secretive penetration into the rear to the location of the wounded;
- personal evacuation of victims using military equipment.
Major injuries can be complicated by bleeding, shock conditions, respiratory failure and cardiovascular activity. These conditions slow down the care process and can cause complications if they are not promptly addressed. All necessary events are carried out immediately, immediately at the scene. The tactical medic does not begin a retreat until he ensures the safety of the wounded.
Help with injury
It can be applied with any kind of weapon - cold or firearms, and also be the result of a mine-blast wave. By the nature of the application can be:
- through in the presence of an inlet and outlet;
- blind when there is only one hole;
- tangent applied to the surface of the body without deep penetration;
- penetrating, having different depths.
Any injury can have dangerous consequences: bleeding, violation of the integrity of internal organs, nerves, the development of infection. Help tactics in this situation depend on the severity of the injury. But there are general principles that apply to any injury. Namely:
- stopping bleeding;
- bandage application;
- antimicrobial treatment of wounds.
The need for other activities is determined according to the complexity of the situation. If necessary, anesthesia is administered to the person in the form of an intramuscular injection using a special syringe tube.
More complex manipulations (suturing of wounds, drainage) should be carried out only in case of emergency. The best solution would be to transport the injured to the nearest medical facility.
What to do in case of injuries?
Injuries mean bruises, dislocations and sprains. Tactical medicine in battle conditions involves the adoption of the most basic and important measures:
- anesthesia;
- immobilization (tire laying, fixation);
- evacuation.
If the situation permits, it is additionally necessary to provide the victim with a plentiful drink, to ensure the elevated position of the injured limb. In case of bruises, a tight dressing is applied, local anesthesia is done by external means, they provide further immobilization and evacuation. When injuring tendons and ligaments, as well as dislocations, the actions are similar. You can’t correct the dislocation on your own, as it is easy to confuse it with a fracture.
Types of Fractures
This is the most common damage. The following varieties of fractures:
- full when the bone is completely broken;
- incomplete - the bone is broken;
- open - with a violation of the integrity of tissues;
- closed when tissue integrity is maintained.
Fracture is one of the most severe and dangerous types of injury. It is characterized by an unnatural limb shape, soreness when touching, swelling, decreased or lack of mobility. In addition, a crunch of rubbing broken bones and their fragments is heard. Injury is complicated by severe pain.
Fracture relief
When assisting with fractures, the following tactics are used:
- anesthesia;
- immobilization;
- evacuation.
With open fractures , a preliminary application of a bandage and stopping of bleeding is necessary. Fixing a broken bone, impose a splint, capturing both joints, ensuring their immobility. If there are no improvised tools and tires, you can bandage the injured arm to the body, and the leg to an intact limb. Help with fractures depends on the severity of the situation.
With a fracture of the spine, no field treatment is carried out! The injured person is placed on a solid stretcher (the so-called shield). At least three people participate in this: one takes by the neck, supporting the head with the forearms, the second - by the lower back, the third - by the legs. Raise at the same time. Then the victim is taken to a medical facility as quickly as possible.
The main types of burns
A burn is tissue damage caused by several types of exposure:
- high fever;
- chemical means;
- electric current;
- radiation radiation.
There are 4 degrees of burn severity:
- I - redness of the skin at the burn site;
- II - the formation of bubbles filled with liquid;
- III - the formation of necrotic (dead) skin patches of various depths with the appearance of a scab;
- IV - complete necrosis of the skin, soft tissues, muscles, bones, carbonization.
As a rule, burns of 3 and 4 degrees are a real threat to life. Burns 1 and 2 tbsp. called superficial, they heal within 2 weeks and do not pose a life threat. Unless, of course, over 50% of the skin area is affected by them.
How to help?
First aid for burns consists in eliminating the traumatic factor: you need to extinguish the flame, remove the burning clothing (but do not tear it off if it gets on your skin), remove the victim from the burning room, etc. If the flame engulfs a person, you need to press him on the burning site to the ground or throw it with earth, cover with a thick cloth and squeeze it, pour water. Remember that the effects of napalm and white phosphorus cannot be neutralized with water!
Further first aid for burns involves immediate cooling of the burned area. It is best to use water at room temperature, the cooling time is 20 minutes, regardless of the size of the burn and its depth. Then you need to provide anesthesia. For example, give the victim an antihistamine: Suprastin or Claritin. In addition, it is necessary to assess the degree of burn and the depth of the lesion, apply a bandage and evacuate the victim. For the treatment of injury, special means are used: Panthenol, Bepanten, Apollo anti-burn dressings.
Important! If you have to act in a highly smoky area, you must breathe through a fabric dressing moistened with water. Such a barrier will be short-lived. Either you need to moisten the dressing often with fresh water, or (based on combat experience) soak it with blood, which is able to bind carbon monoxide, which will allow you to last longer in the smoke center.
Help with frostbite and hypothermia
Most often frostbite is exposed to hands, feet, fingers, ears, nose. At first there is a tingling sensation, slight pain, the frostbitten place turns red, then turns white, and sensitivity is lost. If you immediately warm the frostbitten part of the body, it will take on a natural look after 3 hours. Long-term frostbite is a great danger. Depending on the depth of the lesion, they are divided into 4 degrees:
- 1 tbsp. - the skin turns white, loses sensitivity, then turns blue, swelling and itching appear.
- 2 tbsp. - the appearance of blisters with a light liquid, necrosis of the upper layers of the skin.
- 3 tbsp. - the appearance of blisters with bloody fluid, necrosis affects the deep tissues.
- 4 tbsp. - Necrosis affects muscle and bone tissue.
Tactical medicine for frostbite involves the elimination of the traumatic factor - low temperature. The victim is taken to heat or wrapped up, changed into dry clothes. Mandatory action is the application of a bandage that insulates heat, and transportation to a medical institution.
It is forbidden to rub damaged areas with snow, a wool glove, alcohol, give alcoholic drinks inside, and heat them with open fire from a fire or torch. Symptoms of hypothermia are drowsiness, fatigue, apathy, decreased vitality. In the future, a person may lose consciousness with oppression and the cessation of vital functions. The tactics of behavior in these cases are similar to the actions we have already described.