Surgical management of injured ADF personnel deployed to Afghanistan 2001-2021.

Surgical management of military trauma was undertaken at multiple sites by multiple surgical teams from different nationalities delivering exceptional results and conforming to modern principles of damage control surgery. The military trauma system is distinctly different from its civilian counterpart with dispersion of assets requiring multiple episodes of casualty movement between echelons of care rather than centralization at level 1 trauma centres. Despite this, excellent results are achievable. Strengthening lines of communication and documentation would reinforce the ability of the military trauma system to continue to provide such results, and regular oversight and review of surgical caseload would align military trauma surgery with civilian standards. The benchmark set by the United States Department of Defense Trauma Registry should be replicated for Australian led combat operations and modified to facilitate interoperability to support future coalition combat operations.