Use in crisis and conflict regions requires highly qualified surgeons

14.12.2014 22:33

During Bundeswehr missions in crisis and conflict areas, surgeons treat the injured forces of their own and sometimes allied armed forces and, if possible, also the civilian population. The circumstances on site place great demands on the doctors both professionally and psychologically. “The importance of this demanding field of work is often underestimated, so it is also necessary here to train young surgical talent well and to try to counteract any potential shortage in a motivating way,” says Professor Dr. med. Peter M. Vogt, President of the German Society of Surgery (DGCH). In order to ensure that soldiers receive surgical care in the future, young doctors must continue to choose this career path.

Whether in Afghanistan, Africa or the current NATO mission on the Turkish-Syrian border: it is not just the climate, infrastructure and work equipment that often differ significantly from the conditions at home in crisis and conflict regions. “Working in these regions is a professional, but above all a great personal and human challenge for doctors,” says senior medical officer Dr. med. Gerhard Achatz from the Clinic for Trauma Surgery and Orthopedics, Reconstructive and Septic Surgery, Sports Traumatology at the Bundeswehr Hospital in Ulm.

When deployed abroad, Bundeswehr surgeons usually work in teams of two, consisting of an older, experienced colleague and a younger one. In crisis and conflict regions, they encounter injuries that are rare in everyday hospital life in Germany: “Gunshot and explosion injuries in the sense of penetrating injuries occur more frequently there, but so do all other types of injuries, so that the surgical spectrum differs from that regular work in the clinic at home," describes Achatz, who himself was already deployed for the Bundeswehr in Afghanistan and Kosovo. This requires the surgeon to have extensive training in order to be able to carry out so-called operational surgery. During the operations, which usually last six weeks, the surgical team is available around the clock to operate immediately in the event of an emergency. In this unfamiliar environment they sometimes experience dramatic individual fates and injuries or even the death of comrades. “When deployed in crises and conflict regions, this increases the psychological stress for the doctors working there,” says Achatz, who also heads the Young Surgery Perspective Forum at the DGCH: a representation of young talent within the DGCH, which is particularly concerned with accepts and strives to address the concerns of young talent, especially in the area of training and further education.

“For operations during Bundeswehr operations, we need highly qualified surgeons with well-structured, broad emergency surgery training,” says DGCH President Professor Vogt from the Hannover Medical School (MHH). The Bundeswehr itself trains most of the surgeons who accompany crisis operations. Some also come to the Bundeswehr as lateral entrants from the civilian supply structures. Quite a few of them choose this path because it appeals to the professional diversity of the assignment abroad and the complex and broad surgical training required in advance, which contrasts with the specialized surgery in normal clinics at home. “Civil surgery can learn a lot from military surgery, for example about certain types of injuries that are particularly frequently treated in this area,” says Professor Vogt. Whether in the Bundeswehr or on the civilian job market: “Overall, too few aspiring doctors are choosing surgery today,” regrets the DGCH President. Surgeons from Germany are in demand not only here, but also for crisis operations abroad. The DGCH therefore actively supports young doctors and is committed to providing them with the best possible training.