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UT Southwestern Seeks Veterans for Survey About War Injuries

veterans
US soldiers. US Army. The United States Armed Forces. Military forces of the United States of America. | Image by Bumble Dee, Shutterstock

UT Southwestern Medical Center is searching for military veterans to participate in their study of the unspoken cost of war.

As part of the study, veterans who suffered injuries during their service will be asked to complete a survey about the treatments they received, regardless of whether those treatments were successful.

Researchers hope their findings will help doctors learn more about how to effectively treat life-changing injuries sustained by soldiers, who often return home with missing feet or even missing legs.

“Those in Afghanistan and Iraq were largely IED blast-type injuries,” said associate investigator Dr. Steven J. Hudak of UT Southwestern Medical Center and UT Health San Antonio. “It’s been very, very few people that have been interested in telling their own story for obvious reasons.”

Hudak and his colleagues have studied more than 1,500 military injuries through UT Health San Antonio’s Trauma Outcomes and Urogenital Health (TOUGH) Project.

Many combat veterans have sustained traumatic injuries to their urological and reproductive organs. A study published in 2017 reported that more than 1,300 male veterans suffered injuries to their genitals or urinary tract in Iraq or Afghanistan from 2001 to 2013, mostly from bomb blasts. More than a third of those injuries were “severe.”

“It’s difficult for individuals to talk about that in a public forum,” said Hudak. “Even though those who have sustained these injuries may not talk about it very openly, if we consider how such an injury might affect us personally, I think it brings a very personal angle to it when we realize how important these sensitive functions are.”

Hudak said among the most important things his team is looking for are “any care needs or gaps that the Department of Defense or the Veterans Administration has not been able to fill over the course of their care.”

“And beyond that — how any changes to these areas have affected their mental health and their overall quality of life,” he said.

The TOUGH Project is a congressionally directed medical research program (CDMRP) funded by the U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity (USAMRAA) organization.

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