The story of the men and women who, throughout history, have pitted themselves against the destruction caused in battle.

“A most interesting book, both from a World War I historical perspective and from the major changes in medicine that are so well outlined.” —British Journal of Surgery The First World War resulted in appalling wounds that quickly became grossly infected. The medical profession had to rapidly modify its clinical practice to deal with the major problems presented by overwhelming sepsis. Besides risk of infection, there were many other issues to be addressed including casualty evacuation, anesthesia, the use of X-rays, and how to deal with disfiguring wounds—plastic surgery in its infancy. This book focuses closely on the human aspects of the surgery of warfare, and how developments in the understanding of combat injuries occurred. Ten essays covering a wide variety of topics, including the evacuation of casualties; anesthesia, shock, and resuscitation; pathology; X-rays; orthopedic wounds; abdominal wounds; chest wounds; wounds of the skull and brain; and the development of plastic surgery. All material is supported by an extensive number of figures, tables, and images. Those with a passion for the history of this period, even if they have no medical training, will find fascinating information about those surgeons who worked in Casualty Clearing Stations between 1914 and 1918—and laid the foundations for modern war surgery as practiced today.

Specialty Volume of Textbooks of Military Medicine. TMM. Edited by Shawn Christian Nessen, Dave Edmond Lounsbury, and Stephen P. Hetz. Foreword by Bob Woodruff. Prepared especially for medical personnel. Provides the fundamental principles and priorities critical in managing the trauma of modern warfare. Contains concise supplemental material for military surgeons deploying or preparing to deploy to a combat theater.

In April 1992, a handful of young physicians, not one of them a surgeon, was trapped along with 50,000 men, women, and children in the embattled enclave of Srebrenica, Bosnia-Herzegovina. There the doctors faced the most intense professional, ethical, and personal predicaments of their lives. Drawing on extensive interviews, documents, and recorded materials she collected over four and a half years, doctor and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Sheri Fink tells the harrowing--and ultimately enlightening--story of these physicians and the three who try to help them: an idealistic internist from Doctors without Borders, who hopes that interposition of international aid workers will help prevent a massacre; an aspiring Bosnian surgeon willing to walk through minefields to reach the civilian wounded; and a Serb doctor on the opposite side of the front line with the army that is intent on destroying his former colleagues. With limited resources and a makeshift hospital overflowing with patients, how can these doctors decide who to save and who to let die? Will their duty to treat patients come into conflict with their own struggle to survive? And are there times when medical and humanitarian aid ironically prolong war and human suffering rather than helping to relieve it?

Accompanying CD-ROM contains graphic footage of various war wound surgeries.

#1 International Bestseller: A frontline trauma surgeon tells his “riveting” true story of operating in the world’s most dangerous war zones (The Times). For more than twenty-five years, surgeon David Nott has volunteered in some of the world’s most perilous conflict zones. From Sarajevo under siege in 1993 to clandestine hospitals in rebel-held eastern Aleppo, he has carried out lifesaving operations in the most challenging conditions, and with none of the resources of a major metropolitan hospital. He is now widely acknowledged as the most experienced trauma surgeon in the world. War Doctor is his extraordinary story, encompassing his surgeries in nearly every major conflict zone since the end of the Cold War, as well as his struggles to return to a “normal” life and routine after each trip. Culminating in his recent trips to war-torn Syria—and the untold story of his efforts to help secure a humanitarian corridor out of besieged Aleppo to evacuate some 50,000 people—War Doctor is a heart-stopping and moving blend of medical memoir, personal journey, and nonfiction thriller that provides unforgettable, at times raw, insight into the human toll of war. “Superb . . . You are constantly amazed that men such as Nott can witness the extraordinary cruelties of the human race, so many and so foul, yet keep going.” —Sunday Times “Gripping and fascinating medical stories.” —Kirkus Reviews

Written in a lively and engaging style, this book provides a fascinating introduction to the development of surgery through the ages. Heavily illustrated in colour, The Cambridge Illustrated History of Surgery is the only serious choice for a reader wanting a lively and informative single-volume introduction to surgical history.