Abstract: Aim: to study the main reasons that led to the execution of amputation during the combat conflict in the East of Ukraine.

Materials and methods. The causes of limb amputation are analyzed among 159 victims of the combat conflict in Eastern Ukraine. The average age of the wounded at the time of getting injured made up 33,04±1,15 years (from 18,9 to 60,3 years old); 158 (99,4%) of the wounded were male, 1 (0,6%) - female.

Results: 130 (81.8%) injured lost one limb segment, 29 (18,2%) wounded had multiple limb amputations. In total, 191 operations on limb segment amputation were performed for 159 patients (1,2 amputations per 1 wounded). The causes for the amputation were: 99 (51,8%) amputations were performed because of the traumatic avulsion of limb; 36 (18,8%) – caused by the irreversible limb ischemia as a result of the great vessel injury;  28 (14,7%) – caused by the massive areas of limb primary necrosis caused by mine-blast injuries; 13 (6,8%) –  caused by the freezing injury; 5 (2,6%) – caused by the traumatic crush of the limb because of the explosive injury; 3 (1,6%) – caused by the massive areas of limb secondary necrosis; 2 (1,0%) – caused by the crush-syndrome, 1 (0,5%) – caused by the limb putrefactive phlegmon. In 4 (2,1%) cases the cause of the limb amputation was not reliably identified with the lack of proper medical documentation. In 70.6% of the cases the causes of limb amputation were related to the simultaneous occurrence of irreversible changes in the limb resulted from the action of high-energy factors (a powerful blast wave, debris with large kinetic energy, gas-flame mixture, hitting by train). Instead, in 29,4% of cases limb amputation was performed as a result of the gradual formation of irreversible changes in the limb. In part of these cases the limb amputation could have been prevented (or its level could have been reduced) by optimizing organizational-tactical and medical-evacuation measures.

Abstract: Purpose: To investigate blood flow pulsatility degree as a quantitative index and to evaluate clinical usefulness of the index using pulsatile flow detection ultrasound (PFD-US).

Patients and Methods: Eighty patients (43 with untreated Graves’ disease and 37 with untreated Hashimoto’s disease) were examined by PFD-US with a 9 MHz electronic linear array transducer.  PFD color mapping was imaged as pulsatile flow in red and low pulsatile flow in blue.  The number of red and blue pixels were counted respectively. We defined pulsatile flow/ low pulsatile flow (P/LP) ratio as dividing red /blue pixels, for a blood flow pulsatility index.

Results: The mean P/LP ratio of Graves’ disease (2.14 ± 1.90, mean  ±  one standard deviation) was statistically higher (p < 0.0001) than that of Hashimoto’s disease (0.85 ± 0.58).