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| Question | Answer |
| Harold Gillies | Set up plastic surgery unit during WW1 Kept careful records of his patients injuries and his reconstructions He developed the new technique of pedicle tubes - healthy skin could be grown and grafted. |
| Prosthetic limbs | Great advances made - use of light metal alloys and new mechanisms. BUT - long waiting lists for these to be fitted (over 41,000 British men lost a limb in WW1) and patients needed training to use them properly. |
| Explosive weapons | Many soldiers suffered deep wounds, fragments of clothing entered the wounds causing infection. This was made worse by the terrible conditions - muddy waterlogged trenches. |
| Saline (salt) solution | Surgeons found that the best way of dealing with infection was cutting away infected tissue and soaking the wound in saline solution, although this didn't deal with serious infection. |
| Brain Surgery | Surgeons made some early attempts at brain surgery because of the horrific nature of the injuries soldiers recieved. |
| Surgeons' experience | The huge number of causalties gave surgeons a lot of experience in a wide range of injuries and often they had to improvise new techniques. However they were often working in very difficult conditions under immense pressure and weren't able to give much time to each case. |
| Storage of blood | There was a huge need for effective transfusions driven by the terrible injuries that were commonplace during WWI. Lewisohn, Weil, Rous and Turner all played a part in the ability to successfully store blood, removing the need for on the spot donnors and leading to the first blood bank being set up in 1917 |
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