[Apropos the mystery of why number of people getting medical evacutions are so much higher than the statistics on people wounded]
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2005-11-20-back-pain_x.htm
Posted 11/20/2005 10:15 PM
USA Today
Soldiers in Iraq carry extra load
By Elizabeth Weise
More than half of U.S. soldiers who have been medically evacuated from
Iraq and treated at two of the military's large pain treatment centers
suffer not from battle wounds but from bad backs, researchers report.
Most injured soldiers aren't hurt on the battlefield. In contemporary
warfare, injuries are more likely to be the result of a motor-vehicle
accident, falls or disease -- the same problems a doctor would see in
civilians in the same age range, says Maj. Scott Griffith, an author
of the study. He is the director of the chronic pain clinic at Walter
Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
Though soldiers are in better shape than the average citizen, they
also face high-stress conditions. That, combined with sleeping on cots
with little back support, standing on their feet for hours at a time,
riding in convoys in crunched positions and wearing heavy body armor,
contributes to back troubles, says Capt. Brian Kargus, who served with
the 101st Airborne Division in Mosul, Iraq.
Still, the high percentage of soldiers who leave Iraq because of back
pain is disturbing, says lead author Steven Cohen, a lieutenant
colonel in the Army Reserves and pain specialist at the Johns Hopkins
School of Medicine in Baltimore.
The study, which is published in the October issue of the journal
Anesthesia & Analgesia, examined 162 injured soldiers who were
medically evacuated from Iraq and treated at the two pain clinics.
Fifty-three percent, or 86 soldiers, had lower back pain. They were
treated at large interventional pain centers at Walter Reed Army
Medical Center and at Landstuhl Regional Army Medical Center in
Germany. Battle injuries accounted for 17% of evacuations.
More than 65 million Americans develop lower back pain every year,
according to the American College of Neurological Surgeons. It's the
most common cause of job-related disability, according to the National
Institute of Neurological Disorders.
And, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs, the most common
ailments -- experienced by 30% of veterans who return from Iraq and
Afghanistan -- are musculoskeletal problems, primarily joint and back
pain.
Not that back pain in the Army is anything new. Doctors used to see
something called "rucksack palsy," which is caused by nerve injuries
from carrying heavy backpacks for miles, says Lt. Col. Frank
Christopher, a medical doctor and chief of deployment health at Fort
Bragg in North Carolina.
"Inherent in being a soldier is carrying large weights. Historically,
the ideal 'carry weight' is a third of your body weight," Christopher
says.
The military is responding. Physical therapists are being deployed
with some battalions, and chiropractic services also are available.
© Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.