![]() ![]() Epic history and challenges of the mobile units at the frontline, brilliant results achieved on war wounds and epidemics are described. Chiefs of the army approved the project and implemented seven similar units, called army surgical ambulances, each run by a distinguished surgeon. Among the interventionists, Baldo Rossi, to provide a setting adequate to major operations close to the frontline, with trained surgeons and adequate instruments, realized for the Milano Red Cross three fully equipped, mobile surgical hospitals mounted on trucks, with an operating cabin-tent, with warming, illumination and sterilizing devices, post-operative tents and a radiological unit. Many courses and publications on war surgery flourished. During initial neutrality, Italian Academics closely followed the debate, with different positions. The problem seemed mainly organizational, as the wounded were rescued after many hours and treated by non-specialist doctors, in inadequate frontline settings or evacuated back with further delay of treatment. ![]() ![]() Surgical community divided into non-operative and operative treatment supporters. Abdominal wounds were especially a problem: upon entering the war the commanders of all medical services ordered to avoid surgery, based on dismal experiences of previous wars. ![]() Tetanus, gas gangrene, wound infections were common and often fatal. Medical services in WWI had to face enormous new problems: masses of wounded, most with devastating wounds from artillery splinters, often involving body cavities, and always contaminated. ![]()
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