Extremity War Injuries II focuses on development of clinical treatment principles

More than 20,000 U.S. service men and women have been wounded in the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Approximately 70 percent of these injuries are musculoskeletal in nature, mostly resulting from exploding devices.

In January 2006, the AAOS, the Orthopaedic Trauma Association (OTA), and the military cosponsored the Extremity War Injuries: State of the Art and Future Directions (EWI) symposium. The symposium focused on orthopaedic injuries sustained during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, and was attended by representatives from the armed forces, specialty societies, government, and Congressional leaders. Results were compiled in a special issue of the Journal of the AAOS (JAAOS), now available online at www.jaaos.org

Last month, a second meeting—Extremity War Injuries II: Development of Clinical Treatment Principles (EWI-II)—was held. Attendees received updates on relevant research efforts, examined new challenges faced overseas, and most significantly, developed new clinical treatment algorithms. A summary of the results will appear in JAAOS this summer.

For more information on the treatment of orthopaedic war injuries, watch for the next issue of AAOS Now, which will include reports from EWI-II as well as from the Annual Meeting symposia.