Abstract
Field surgery has been one of the oldiest branches of surgery, related to wars and armed conflicts, during the entire history. Its development in Czech countries was closely connected with establishing of the Josephinum in Vienna.
This school contributed much to the union of internal medicine and surgery, which had been separated until then. The second branch of the Czech school of war surgery was developed at the Dept. of Surgery of the Prague Faculty of Medicine.
Historically, many specifics and characteristics determine this discipline, e.g. mass casualty situations, specific conditions of the medical support (geographical, climatic), unceasing military activity, difficulties in the material and technical provision of care (lack of medicaments, blood, dressing material), medical transportation problems etc. During the second half of the 20th century, the principles of practice of military health services were based upon provision for armies of hundreds of thousands of men, where numbers of non-fatal casualties were the main problem.
During the last 3 decades, it became obvious that flexibility and proximity of surgical help, as near to the injured as possible, is improved by the creation of the Forward Surgical Teams. These units are founded on the principles of easy portability and planned simplicity aimed at resuscitative surgery with minimal equipment.
There are new requirements for training of military surgeons defined, for being able to fulfill their tasks under field conditions. The most important of them are practical skills in surgery, knowledge and practice in urgent medicine, resuscitation procedures and triage principles; military professional education; knowledge of legal aspects of medical care relating to foreign missions; knowledge of the English language.
The Medical Corps of the Czech Armed Forces is fully integrated within the Alliance medical support system, and provides surgical and trauma care at the state-of-the-art level.