Emergency War Surgery NATO Handbook
Figure 1
United States Department of Defense
Figure 1. - Generic organizational diagram for combat casualty care. Width of pathway is
proportional to size of casualty populations. Broken line indicates potential for
aeromedical evacuation from the field of the critically injured. Triage identifies three
groups of casualties: 1) those needing urgent surgery, 2) those likely to have an early
return to duty, and 3) those requiring evacuation from the combat zone.