Emergency War Surgery Course
The Emergency War Surgery Course (EWSC) was established to ensure that surgeons and other deploying providers are familiar and proficient with combat casualty care. The goal is to guarantee every injured service member or person on the battlefield is afforded maximal opportunity at survival and to optimize functional outcome. The EWSC course covers approaches to specific injuries and their management as well as recommendations on how to adapt to providing care in a resource restricted environment. Significant emphasis is placed on providing care in accordance with the best practices as outlined in the Joint Trauma System's Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs). The course goes far above and beyond the information taught in the American College of Surgeons' Advanced Trauma Life Support.
JTS recognizes everyone does not have the same role in combat casualty care. Therefore, JTS periodically updates the course material to deliver the latest information relevant to your specialty. This ensures everyone learns skills relevant to his or her role in the deployed setting. Part 1 is appropriate for everyone. The didactic curricula focuses on delivering combat casualty care in accordance with the JTS CPGs. Primary source documents are JTS CPGs and the Emergency War Surgery Book, 2018 5th Edition (most current version). Lectures cover identification and treatment of specific injuries, resuscitation of the injured person, and battlefield considerations. Unique aspects of the battlefield and how they are relevant to you as an advanced provider are discussed; these include tactical combat casualty care, prolonged field care, en route care, mass casualties, and trauma systems.
Part 2 is a specialty specific module for each combat casualty care team member.
- General Surgery and those who deploy as such as well as surgical technicians (i.e. scrub techs) - ASSET+
- Orthopedic surgeons and surgical technicians - COTS+
- Operational Medical Officers and those who deploy as such (i.e. internal medicine, peds, family practice) - Critical Skills for Expeditionary Medicine
- Head and Neck - Under development by tri-service, multi-specialty (Plastic Surgery/ENT/OMFS) group run out of Uniformed Services University of the Health Science (USU)
- Anesthesia - Under development at USU
- Emergency Medicine - Under development at USU
- Emergency Medicine and Critical Care Nursing - Under development by DHA Nursing Readiness Workgroup
To learn more about the EWSC courses, go to MHS Combat Support. The course schedule with dates and locations can be found at the bottom of the MHS site. You can fill out this registration form and email to dha.jbsa.j7.list.dmrti-ewsc@mail.mil if you know the course in which you wish to enroll.
JTS will be adding version 1.1 narrated lectures as they become available. Every EWSC presentation will be replaced by narrated versions. Narrated lectures must be downloaded to view.
- Introduction EWSC 1.1 Narrated
- Abdominal Urologic Gynecologic Trauma EWSC 1.1 Narrated
- Burn Care EWSC 1.1 Narrated
- Damage Control Resuscitation EWSC 1.0
- En Route Care EWSC 1.1 Narrated
- Extremity Fracture Management EWSC 1.1 Narrated
- Eye Trauma EWSC 1.1 Narrated
- Face and Neck Injuries EWSC 1.1 Narrated
- Field Critical Care - Anesthesia, Infections, and Critical Care EWSC 1.1 Narrated
- Mass Casualty Triage EWSC 1.1 Narrated
- Military Health Systems EWSC 1.0
- Multiple Extremity Amputations EWSC 1.0
- Pediatric Trauma EWSC 1.1 Narrated
- Pelvic Fracture Management EWSC 1.1 Narrated
- Prolonged Field Care EWSC 1.1 Narrated
- REBOA EWSC 1.1 Narrated
- Soft Tissue Extremity Injuries EWSC 1.1 Narrated
- Spinal Injury Management EWSC 1.1 Narrated
- Tactical Combat Casualty Care EWSC 1.1 Narrated
- Thoracic Injuries EWSC 1.1 Narrated
- Transfusion Medicine for Combat Trauma EWSC 1.1 Narrated
- Traumatic Brain Injury EWSC 1.1 Narrated
- Vascular Injuries EWSC 1.1 Narrated
- War Wounds EWSC 1.1 Narrated
ZIP of Emergency War Surgery Course PowerPoint Lectures, File One (291 MB)
ZIP of Emergency War Surgery Course PowerPoint Lectures, File Two (341 MB)