Abstract
STRIKING figures in regard to the decreased death-rate among wounded Soviet soldiers were given by Dr. S. A. Sarkisov, professor of neuropathology at the Moscow Institute of the Brain, in the course of an address to the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain on February 8 on the health services of the Soviet Union. He said that modern warfare, involving huge armies, with its extreme mobility, its complicated tactics and strategy, and its swift wedges driven into almost completely devastated areas, has changed the whole structure of the organization of the medical service and lays entirely new demands on it, especially where first aid is concerned. Further complications are added by the use of new and powerful weapons such as mines, splinter bombs and so on. Whereas in the War of 1914–18 the majority of wounds were caused by bullets, in the present War they are due to mine and other splinters. These provoke grave wounds, extremely susceptible to infection. Despite all this, important progress in wound treatment has been made. During this War there have been only isolated cases of gas gangrene; the percentage of amputations is considerably lower than during 1914–18; the death-rate caused by bladder wounds has been reduced to a very great extent. Further improvements have resulted in a remarkable decrease of the death-rate among wounded men in the hospitals. This rate is now only 1·1 per cent, and the percentage of wounded men who have returned fit to the front is now 73 per cent. During 1914–18 it was 40 per cent. In addition, there have been no epidemics in the U.S.S.R. This is all the more significant when it is remembered that the considerable medical problems connected with the large-scale transfer of industries to the eastern parts of the country took place in the early stages of the War.
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Military Health Services in the U.S.S.R. Nature 155, 198 (1945). https://doi.org/10.1038/155198b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/155198b0