Surgical experience at the Rama war hospital in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
We present our experience in the treatment of 1,300 wounded at the Rama war hospital in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Rama surgical teams performed mainly chest, abdominal and vascular operations, and other operations if the patient's life was considered to be in danger. All severely wounded patients were transported in a stable hemodynamic state to the Split University Hospital within 48 to 72 h, as the Rama hospital was primarily an evacuation facility. Owing to the well-organized first aid provided and the rapid evacuation from the combat line, all patients were operated within 3 h after injury. This, together with the excellent functioning of our blood bank were factors responsible for our good results. Among the 226 casualties operated under general anesthesia, mortality was 8.4% (19 cases). The most common causes of death were multiple injury and irreversible hemorrhagic shock.