Soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan are sustaining a significant rate of complex musculoskeletal injuries that will require medical care well into the future, according to a study presented Friday at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.

The study is the first to examine the scoop of musculoskeletal injuries in a U.S. Army brigade combat team involved in counterinsurgency work. Of 4,122 troops in the study database, there were 242 musculoskeletal injuries. However, injuries to the spine, pelvis and long bones accounted for more than half of those wounds. Just more than 80% of the injuries were sustained in explosions.

“The complex orthopaedic injury patterns found in this investigation, including the high incidence of major amputation and fractures, have important implications for the future, as the burden of ongoing care for combat injured soldiers must be borne by the federal government, military treatment facilities and the Veterans’ Administration,” the authors wrote.

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