The Finnish Forward Surgical Team experience during EUFOR Operation RD Congo in 2006

The army Forward Surgical Team (FST) is a mobile surgical asset designed to provide life- and limb-saving combat surgery in remote and austere terrains. Operation EUFOR RDC in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in 2006 was the first one planned and conducted solely by the European Union Forces (EUFOR). The first two European FSTs reported in the present article were established by the Finnish Defence Forces. The Finnish FSTs were deployed for 4 months in Kinshasa. Three different deployment scenarios were trained; the equipments loaded on two trucks and carried by two C-130 aircrafts, the equipments loaded on two aircraft pallets (no trucks) and carried by one C-130 aircraft, and the equipments loaded on and carried by two CH-53 helicopters. The FSTs were deployed in three tactical and four reconnaissance operations. Due to the peacekeeping nature of the Operation, the surgical medical workload was light. The total number of patients treated by FSTs was 12,5 of them being due to trauma and 7 to medical condition. All trauma cases were of non-combat origin, and only one of them was severe. The European FST concept should be developed for future missions regarding the experiences gained during the reported deployment, the main goals being the mobility and the lightness of the unit. This kind of special trauma surgical asset, designed for remote theatres, will possibly be useful also in other emergency operations taking place in non-convention a I circumstances; a concept of FST could easily be deployed in short notice to various accidental and natural disasters.