Marine Corps in Hawaii should find alternatives to animal testing

As an academic trauma surgeon and advanced trauma life support instructor, I find it disturbing that Marine Corps Base Hawaii continues to use the outdated method of practicing procedures on unconscious animals, when validated, humane training techniques are available.

In their current training, instructors and students cut into the legs and throats of unconscious pigs and insert plastic tubes and needles into their chests and abdomens.

After the courses, the pigs are killed ("Marines asked to avoid using animals in training," Star-Advertiser, Oct. 2).

Officials at the base insist that this training is necessary to prepare the units for deployment. But I find it interesting that the Marine Corps lets unit commanders decide whether animals are used for this training, and even then, members of the unit can opt out.

If the Corps truly believes practicing on animals is necessary, and they also allow corpsmen (the Marine equivalent of Army medics) to opt out, then they are sending medical personnel into the field when — in their opinion — they are not prepared.

I believe the Corps realizes that this type of training is unnecessary but is having trouble letting go.

The military has used animals in trauma training for years — but there is no evidence that it saves lives on the battlefield.

In fact, a July 2009 U.S. Department of Defense report explicitly states that the use of animals for combat trauma training has never been thoroughly evaluated and has simply been a go-to method.

More than a decade ago, it was also common for civilian trauma training programs to use animals. But as technology has advanced, the vast majority of civilian trauma training programs have replaced the use of animals with the TraumaMan System simulator, a high-retention, risk-reduced method.

With respect to U.S. military training in particular, many courses similar to the one in Hawaii are using human-based methods to train soldiers.

The U.S. Marine Corps in Okinawa exclusively uses simulators for combat trauma training, as does the U.S. Air Force’s Center for Sustainment of Trauma and Readiness Skills.

Some military leaders — including some at Marine Corps Base Hawaii — still feel that trauma care can only be taught using "live tissue." But from experience training surgical residents using simulation — and with more than 10 years of experience as a trauma surgeon — I know that simulators very closely replicate the experience of treating a wounded human.

As one example, the Cut Suit from Strategic Operations (http://www.strategic-operations.com/products/cut-suit) was specifically designed for combat trauma training courses. It’s a simulator that a person actually wears while a trainee is performing procedures. It allows for interaction with a live patient during the emergency assessment and treatment.

Compared with practicing on an anesthetized pig, the experience of treating a person wearing the Cut Suit much more closely resembles the atmosphere and emotions involved with working on a human patient.

Trauma training with simulation also provides both tactile and computer-simulated feedback.

With simulation, procedures can be practiced and repeated, similar to the simulation training utilized by fighter pilots.

Marine Corps Base Hawaii should replace the use of animals in this training with simulators and other methods based on human anatomy.

This would ensure that those serving on the front lines have the best possible care.

Marie Crandall is a trauma surgeon at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago and an associate professor of surgery at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.