Do Inflammatory Markers Portend Heterotopic Ossification and Wound Failure in Combat Wounds?

After a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have observed an increase in combat-related injury survival and a paradoxical increase in injury severity, mainly because of the effects of blasts. These severe injuries have a devastating effect on each patient's immune system resulting in massive upregulation of the systemic inflammatory response. By examining inflammatory mediators, preliminary data suggest that it may be possible to correlate complications such as wound failure and heterotopic ossification (HO) with distinct systemic and local inflammatory profiles, but this is a relatively new topic.