Portable Surgical Hospitals in the Burma Campaign of World War II: Prototypes of Forward Combat Casualty Care

Forward surgical care of combat casualties on austere, non-linear battlefields demands mobility, surgical expertise, routes of evacuation, and resource sustainment. Introduced during the Allied New Guinea offensives of 1942, Percy Carroll’s innovative Portable Surgical Hospitals (PSHs) demonstrated capabilities for evaluation, resuscitation, and limited reparative surgery to revive and salvage victims of major battlefield trauma. During the offensives of late 1943, the PSHs again deployed in the dense wilderness Burma; once again, their capabilities were evident. Carroll’s PSHs served as the prototype for current forward surgical units deployed deep in unsecured territory.