E-Books: Medical Treatment of Radiological Injuries

 

Hiroshima burn marks

For the medically inclined, here are links to some books and articles on treating radiological injuries:

• FM 4-02.283 Treatment of Nuclear and Radiological Casualties (PDF). See also this April 2000 draft FM 8-283 Treatment of Nuclear Warfare Casualties and Low-Level Radiation Injuries (PDF).
• Medical Management of Radiological Casualties (Online Third Edition, 2010) (PDF).
• Medical Consequences of Nuclear Warfare (PDF) (epub)
• "Radiation Injury After a Nuclear Detonation: Medical Consequences and the Need for Scarce Resources Allocation," Disaster Med Public Health Prep. 2011 March ; 5(0 1): S32–S44. doi:10.1001/dmp.2011.17. (PDF). From the abstract:

A 10-kiloton (kT) nuclear detonation within a US city could expose hundreds of thousands of people to radiation. The Scarce Resources for a Nuclear Detonation Project was undertaken to guide community planning and response in the aftermath of a nuclear detonation, when demand will greatly exceed available resources. This article reviews the pertinent literature on radiation injuries from human exposures and animal models to provide a foundation for the triage and management approaches outlined in this special issue. Whole-body doses >2 Gy can produce clinically significant acute radiation syndrome (ARS), which classically involves the hematologic, gastrointestinal, cutaneous, and cardiovascular/central nervous systems. The severity and presentation of ARS are affected by several factors, including radiation dose and dose rate, interindividual variability in radiation response, type of radiation (eg, gamma alone, gamma plus neutrons), partial-body shielding, and possibly age, sex, and certain preexisting medical conditions. The combination of radiation with trauma, burns, or both (ie, combined injury) confers a worse prognosis than the same dose of radiation alone. Supportive care measures, including fluid support, antibiotics, and possibly myeloid cytokines (eg, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor), can improve the prognosis for some irradiated casualties. Finally, expert guidance and surge capacity for casualties with ARS are available from the Radiation Emergency Medical Management Web site and the Radiation Injury Treatment Network.

• Merck Manual (consumer version), "Radiation Injury" by Jerrold T. Bushberg, PhD, DABMP, DABSNM, The National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements.
• Assessing Medical Preparedness to Respond to a Terrorist Nuclear Event - Workshop Report (PDF).
• "General Medical Effects of Nuclear Weapons: Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prognosis", FM 8-9 NATO Handbook on the Medical Aspects of NBC Defensive Operations (AMedP-6(B)).
• Medical Planning and Response Manual for a Nuclear Detonation Incident: A Practical Guide (PDF).
• Arizona Department of Health Services Radiological Emergency Response Plan (PDF).