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As one of the two academic consortia of AFIRM, RCCC is driven by the needs of the wounded warrior. RCCC strives to develop regenerative tools, techniques, and therapies. These are specifically designed to speed the restoration of wounded warriors to functional independence and to enable their re-integration into military service or civilian society beyond what is currently possible. |
The need: Uniqueness of severe battlefield injuries
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| image credit: Olive-Drab.com |
Blast injuries represent the most complex and challenging injuries to treat - in particular when they involve multiple areas of the body (referred to as polytrauma). Battlefield wounds are often accompanied by massive loss of soft tissue, infection, and severely damaged blood vessels - compromising the ability of the body to mount an effective healing response.
Severe battlefield injuries are very different from almost all severe civilian injuries. Among all battlefield injuries in today’s engagements, severe blast injuries account for nearly 80% of casualties that reach later echelons of care. Blast injuries are rarely seen to this extent among civilian patients.
Speeding the recovery of catastrophic polytrauma patients pushes the envelope of current medical technology and represents the most urgent need for RCCC's advanced regenerative therapies. The uniqueness of severe battlefield injuries makes it difficult to simply adapt available therapies and surgical procedures from the civilian sector, but instead requires a focused effort to address the regenerative needs of our most severely injured warriors. It is RCCC's vision to address this need.
