Impact of battlefield-related genitourinary injuries described in Journal of Men's Health
Modern combat and the global war on terror, with increased use of improvised explosive devices, have led to a nearly 350% increased rate of genitourinary injuries. The often debilitating long-term sexual, psychological, fertility, and hormonal effects of these traumatic wounds and the need for new coordinated approaches to care are the focus of a Review article and Guest Editorial in Journal of Men's Health.
The Review "Genitourinary Trauma in the Modern Era of Warfare" discusses why battlefield genitourinary injuries have increased so dramatically in recent years and how they have changed. The article is coauthored by Justin Han, MD and Chris Gonzalez, MD, MBA, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Jesse Brown Veterans Affairs Medical Center (Chicago, IL), and Mark Edney, MD, Peninsula Urology Associates (Salisbury, MD) and Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army Reserve, 48th Combat Support Hospital (Ft. Meade, MD).
Janice Bray, MD, MBA, Chief, Central Texas Veterans Health Care System (Temple, TX), describes the potentially devastating physical, psychological, and social impact of these combat wounds—and in particular their effects on future relationships, intimacy, parenting, self-worth, and suicide risk—in the guest editorial "Genitourinary Trauma: A Battle Cry for Integrated Collaborative Veteran-Centric Care."
