Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “World War II”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1996

Perspectives on history: Army dietitians in the European, North African, and Mediterranean theaters of operation in World War II.

World War II necessitated the mobilization of hundreds of dietitians to serve in military hospitals in the United States and in theaters of war all over the globe. Although initially military dietitians had civilian status, on December 22, 1942, Congress passed Public Law 828, which authorized military status for Army dietitians with relative rank in the Medical Department for the duration of the war and 6 months thereafter. This article chronicles the role of Army dietitians who supported the allied troops in military hospitals in England, Europe, and North Africa during World War II. Recollections of military dietitians who served in the war are included to illustrate the circumstances under which these professionals lived and the dedication with which they worked.

Africa, Northern↗
PubMed1998

Field block for cranial surgery in World War II.

During World War II, physicians with minimal training were often thrust into the role of anesthetist. To educate these men, experts in anesthesia taught simple, conservative, and effective anesthetic techniques, such as the field block. Field blocks are the ideal "no frills" anesthetic because they are low-risk procedures that require minimal equipment. Unfortunately, many of the field blocks used during World War II are no longer taught. We present one technique that has fallen from favor, the field block for cranial surgery, both to educate about anesthesiology during World War II and to provide knowledge for the practicing military physician. The modern military anesthesiologist must be capable of anesthetizing patients under any conditions. First response care teams may find the technique of field block for cranial surgery useful in providing emergency anesthesia care.

Anesthesia, Conduction↗
PubMed1981

A historical account of the "wet lung of trauma" and the introduction of intermittent positive-pressure oxygen therapy in world war II.

During World War II, my associates and I observed for the first time in medical history that casualties with severe brain, thoracic, abdominal, and extremity trauma, who had persistent "wet" respiration (wet lung of trauma), were most difficult to resuscitate, withstood operation poorly, and had the highest mortality. The etiology appeared to be ineffectual cough and persistent bronchopulmonary fluid from hemorrhage, pulmonary transudates resulting from anoxia, airway obstruction, and unknown causes secondary to trauma, some of which have been discovered since then. Our treatment consisted of assisting cough, transnasal tracheobronchial aspiration and oxygenation, bronchoscopy, and tracheostomy. To treat the advanced form, pulmonary edema, I devised an effectual hand-operated intermittent positive-pressure oxygen machine, which has been supplanted by elegant automatic volume- and pressure-regulated devices. Through the use of the intermittent positive-pressure breathing machines, most hospitals have developed thriving departments of respiratory therapy. Better physiological monitoring and use of intermittent mandatory ventilation and positive end-expiratory pressure have improved the care, but our basic principles of treatment are still the standards of respiratory therapy.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Breast cancer incidence in food- vs non-food-producing areas in Norway: possible beneficial effects of World War II.

It has been suggested that World War II influenced breast cancer risk among Norwegian women by affecting adolescent growth. Diet changed substantially during the war, and the reduction in energy intake was assumed to be larger in non-food-producing than in food-producing municipalities. In the present study, we have looked at the influence of residential history in areas with and without food production on the incidence of breast cancer in a population-based cohort study consisting of 597,906 women aged between 30 and 64 years. The study included 7311 cases of breast cancer, diagnosed between 1964 and 1992. The risk estimates were calculated using a Poisson regression model. The results suggest that residential history may influence the risk of breast cancer, where the suggested advantageous effect of World War II seems to be larger in non-food-producing than in food-producing areas. Breast cancer incidence was observed to decline for the post-war cohorts, which is discussed in relation to diet.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1975

Follow-up studies of World War II and Korean war prisoners. II. Morbidity, disability, and maladjustments.

US Army veterans taken prisoner (POW's) in World War II and in the Korean War are compared with controls as to hospital admissions from 1946 to 1965 (1954-1965 for Korean War POW's), and as to symptoms, disability, and maladjustments in 1966-1967. Sequelae of the POW experience are both somatic and psychiatric, and are of greatest extent and severity among Pacific World War II POW's. Among European World War II POW's only psychiatric sequelae are apparent. Somatic sequelae were most prevalent in the early years after liberation, but for Pacific World War II POW's they persist in the form of higher hospital admission rates for many specific causes in the most recent period. Nevertheless, persistent psychiatric sequelae (especially psychoneurosis but also schizophrenia) are the more notable and pervasive for both Pacific World War II POW's and Korean War POW's as seen not only in elevated hospital admission rates but also in VA disability awards and in symptoms reported on the cornell Medical Index Health Questionnaire. The excess morbidity appears to correlate well with retrospective accounts of weight-loss and nutritional deficiency diseases and symptoms during the POW period.

Aged↗
PubMed1994

Aviation pioneers: World War II air evacuation nurses.

During World War II, nurses pioneered a new role for women in the skies. This study of the 1942-1944 Movietonews, the largest of the U.S. newsreel companies with international syndication, identified the exploits of these nurses, compared personal accounts and highlighted flight nurses' contributions to the profession, society, and aviation.

Aviation↗
PubMed1984

Japanese responses to the defeat in World War II.

To learn about the defeat in World War II was a most intense shock to the Japanese. Various psychological responses developed, and some committed suicide. Defense mechanisms such as denial, negation, isolation, rationalization, intellectualization, and regression were observed. The conditions of the occupation were instrumental in letting the Japanese identify with the Occupation Forces in general and General MacArthur in particular, and identification with the aggressor soon became the most important defense mechanism to deal with the shock of the defeat. To learn about the defeat in a war is to be placed in an extreme condition which cannot be created experimentally. The crisis is extraordinary and the shock is immense. Furthermore, it is not a small number of people who are in such a condition; the residents is the defeated country offer a very unusual opportunity for understanding human beings in large numbers in a state of an intense shock. The purpose of this paper is to examine Japanese reactions and responses upon learning about the defeat in World War II in 1945.

Defense Mechanisms↗
PubMed1999

Venous envy: the post-World War II debate over IV nursing.

After World War II, a debate ensued over whether nurses should perform intravenous (IV) therapy. The debate was resolved by permitting nurses to do venipunctures as physicians' agents and by recirculating the familiar tautology: if nurses were already doing venipunctures, they must be simple enough for nurses to do. The vein was a portal of entry for nurses, but one with limited access. What was ultimately ceded to nurses was not full jurisdiction over a domain of nursing practice, but rather a limited settlement in a domain of medical practice. The debate over IV therapy demonstrated how technology, in combination with ideology, can both create and destroy nursing jurisdictions.

Female↗
PubMed1998

Reported physical health in resistance veterans from World War II.

Male Dutch Resistance veterans from World War II who reported on chronic diseases were compared with subjects from a population survey. Resistance veterans in general reported significantly more disease. Veterans with symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder reported more disease than those who had none. Furthermore, 13 specific disease categories were more prevalent in the Resistance veterans than in the general population. In the Resistance veterans total number of reported diseases was significantly correlated with anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder. In Resistance veterans weekly tobacco use was comparable to that of the control subjects, but alcohol consumption was significantly less.

Aged↗
PubMed1987

Evidence of hepatitis virus infection among Australian prisoners of war during World War II.

A sample of Australian male veterans of World War II was surveyed after 40 years. One hundred and seventy veterans had been held by the Japanese as prisoners of war and 172 veterans had served in southeast Asia but had not been taken captive (non-prisoners of war). A medical history was obtained and a physical examination undertaken. Blood was drawn and analysed for standard liver biochemistry and serological markers of hepatitis A and B virus (HAV, HBV) infections. The prevalence of immunoglobulin (Ig)G class antibodies to HAV was 95.2% in non-prisoners of war and 93.3% in prisoners of war. Only three cases of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) seropositivity were identified (two cases from the prisoner-of-war group). Thirty-six (21.8%) prisoners of war were seropositive for the presence of antibodies to HBsAg (anti-HBs) and 34 (20.0%) prisoners of war for that of antibodies to hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc), compared with 16 (9.8%) and eight (4.7%) of the non-prisoners of war, respectively (P = 0.002 and P = 0.0001, respectively). Those veterans who reported jaundice during World War II had a higher prevalence of antibodies to HBV. Among prisoners of war who were forced to work on the Burma-Thailand railway, 24.1% were seropositive for anti-HBc compared with 11.1% of the remaining prisoners of war (P = 0.048). It would appear that hepatitis B was common in prisoners of war but that those who survived 40 years were able to clear the virus and do not appear to have significant liver disease.

Asia, Southeastern↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Psychiatric casualties in the Pacific during World War II: servicemen hospitalised in a Brisbane mental hospital.

World War II created many psychiatric casualties but precise incidences were not accurately established. Battle shock was under-reported as some commanding officers were reluctant to admit that their men experienced battle stress. The objective in triage of any casualties was to retain as many patients in the war zone as possible, if further useful service was feasible. This also applied to soldiers with stress-related symptoms, who were treated in base hospitals as near to an operational zone as possible. The main treating maxims were "immediacy, proximity and expectancy", which involved rapid early treatment in the war zone, hoping for an early return to duty (which often meant active duty). Only those with severe psychiatric illness were sent back to their home country. The medical officer had to be sure that the patient had not responded to treatment before sending him home. During the war, the terminology used for psychological responses to the stress of combat was derived from several classifications in textbooks. Psychiatric nomenclature, barely adequate for civilian psychiatry, was totally inadequate for military psychiatry during that period. The aim of classification was to facilitate data collection rather than to provide definitive diagnoses. Psychiatric therapies during World War II were, at least to some degree, diagnostically non-specific. Diagnosis varied according to the soldier's proximity to the war zone (i.e., less severe diagnoses were given to men closer to the frontline, who would be required in battle). In addition, as psychiatrists were rarely available, medical officers without relevant (or having only limited) specialty training usually diagnosed and treated soldiers with psychiatric problems. At the beginning of the war, traumatic psychiatric reactions were classified into psychoneurosis, anxiety state and anxiety reaction, psychoneurosis mixed, and conversion hysteria. By the end of the war, the United States Surgeon General released a revised nomenclature with two new diagnostic categories: transient personality reactions to acute and special stress; and neurotic-type reactions to routine military stress. It was not until the 1950s that formal criteria for the diagnosis of trauma appeared, in the first diagnostic and statistical manual (DSM-I) of the American Psychiatric Association.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

[Our gynecologic heritage. The activities of scientific gynecologic societies in Northeast Germany after the World War II].

During the Second World War and especially since 1943 the activities of medical societies decreased more and more. The first gynecological meeting in the of Soviets occupied part of Germany happened October 5th till 6th 1946 in Jena. The Chairman was Gustav Döderlein. In May 1947 the Soviet Military Administration commanded the order Nr. 124 about foundation of medical societies. The Society of Gynecology at the University of Rostock was founded November 1947. In year 1948 was the unification with the Gynecological Society of Greifswald. The unified society organized till 1989 more than 40 meetings in the Northern towns of East Germany. 1991 the unification with the Northwestern Society of Gynecology and Obstetrics took place. The Society has now the name "North-German Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology".

Female↗
PubMed2000

Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms in Korean conflict and World War II combat veterans seeking outpatient treatment.

Given important differences in the Korean conflict and World War II, samples of treatment-seeking combat veterans from these wars (30 Korea, 83 World War II) were compared on the prevalence and severity of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). With age, ethnicity, and combat exposure taken into account, the Korean veterans reported significantly more severe symptoms on both interview and self-report PTSD measures. Group differences in the prevalence of current PTSD were in a similar direction but not significant. These results are generally consistent with other studies that have found Korean combat veterans to exhibit higher rates of psychosocial maladjustment than World War II combat veterans. Based on related research with Vietnam veterans, one direction for future investigation is to examine what role stressful postmilitary homecoming experiences may have played in influencing the development and course of combat-related PTSD in the aging cohort of "forgotten" Korean conflict veterans.

Aged↗
PubMed1993

High prevalence of skin cancer in World War II servicemen stationed in the Pacific theater.

BACKGROUND: A large proportion of our World War II patients with skin cancer had been stationed in the Pacific. OBJECTIVE: Our purpose was to determine whether a statistically greater number of World War II servicemen with skin cancer were stationed in the Pacific than the number stationed in Europe. METHODS: In a consecutive survey of 370 World War II servicemen with skin cancer who were stationed abroad, place of service, skin cancer types, skin type, ethnic background, and estimated average hours outdoors per day during their lifetime were determined. The number of veterans stationed in the Pacific and the number stationed in Europe with respect to these data were analyzed with the chi-square test. RESULTS: A statistically significantly greater number of Pacific veterans than Europe veterans had basal cell or squamous cell carcinomas. CONCLUSION: A few months to a few years of prolonged sun exposure in a high-sun-intensity area may result in skin cancer development many years after exposure.

Aged↗