Members of our Editorial Board have recommended the following books, publications, and articles for those interested in the history of military surgery and its impact on the surgical profession as a whole. You will find that not as much has changed as you might think in caring for casualties, as new surgeons find ‘new wounds’ and rediscover old lessons.
Anesthesia and Perioperative Care of the Combat Casualty (Textbook of Military Medicine: Surgical Combat Casualty Care, Part IV) by the Department of the Army, Office of the Surgeon General R.F. Bellamy and R. Zajtchuk, eds; 1995
Battle casualties: Incidence, Mortality, and Logistic Considerations by M.E. DeBakey and G.W. Beebe; 1952.
Bleeding Blue and Gray: Civil War Surgery and the Evolution of American Medicine by Ira Rutkow; 2005.
Conventional Warfare: Ballistic, Blast and Burn Injuries (Textbook of Military Medicine: Warfare, Weaponry, and the Casualty, Volume 5 Part I) by the Department of the Army, Office of the Surgeon General R.F. Bellamy and R. Zajtchuk, eds; 1991.
Crisis Fleeting by J.H. Stone; 1969.
Emergency War Surgery, 2nd ed. T.E. Bowen and R.F. Bellamy, eds; 1988.
Emergency War Surgery: First United States Revision of the Emergency War Surgery NATO Handbook; 1975.
Emergency War Surgery: NATO Handbook; 1958.
Emergency War Surgery: Third United States Revision of the Emergency War Surgery NATO Handbook; 2004.
Field Surgery Pocket Book by N.G. Kirby and G. Blackburn; 1981.
Field Surgery in Total War, Third Impression, June 1942 ed. Hamish Hamilton Medical books; 1941.
Larrey: Surgeon to Napoleon’s Imperial Guard by Robert Richardson; 2002.
MASH: An Army Surgeon in Korea by Otto F. Apel and Pat Apel; 1998.
Modern War Surgery by H. Bailey; 1942.
Surgeon to Soldiers: Diary and Records of the Surgical Consultant, Allied Force Headquarters, World War II by E.D. Churchill; 1972.
Surgery in War by T.H.J. Goodwin and A.J. Hull; 1918. Surgery in World War II: Vascular Surgery by US Army Medical Department, Historical Division M.E. DeBakey and D.C. Elkin, eds; 1955.
Surgery in World War II: Volume II—General Surgery by the Office of the Surgeon General J.B. Coates, ed; 1955.
United States Army in the Korean War: The Medics War by A.E. Cowdrey; 1987.
Vascular Trauma by N.M. Rich and F.C. Spencer; 1978.
Vascular Trauma, 2nd ed. By N.M. Rich, K.L. Mattox, and A. Hirshberg; 2004.
Wound Ballistics for World War II by J.C. Beyer, J.B. Coates, L.D. Heaton; 1962.
Articles Battle injuries of the arteries in World War II by M.E. DeBakey and F.A. Simeone Published in Ann Surg, 1946; 534-571.
Military Surgery in World War II—a backward glance and a forward look by M.E. DeBakey Published in NEJM, 1947; 236(10): 341-350.
The Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH): a military and surgical legacy by Booker King Published in J Natl Med Assoc; 2005; 97(5):648-656.