WTA 2013 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS Evidence-based medicine: What it is, what it isn’t, and are we practicing it? Mark T. Metzdorff, MD, Denver, Colorado Mark T. Metzdorff, MD, Western Trauma Association president. e hear a lot these days about the concept of ‘‘evidence-based medicine.’’ Six years ago, Wone of our most illustrious and intelligent presidents also made it the subject of a presi- dential address1. I will cover a little of the same ground, but bear with me and we will sail into some different seas, as I will address the use of nonYevidence-based medicine in some aspects of modern medical care, rather than the exciting possibilities that Fred Moore described. I think we all have an idea of what evidence-based medicine means to us personally, but in fact, there is a definition that is accepted by some major organizations devoted to the study and promotion of the concept, and there is a large body of work by these organizations and others around the topic. ‘‘Evidence-based medicine is the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients.’’2 This relatively recent definition implies that the concept is modern, but look at the key word current, and one can see that the concept can be said to be timeless, for what is current changes as our knowledge base changes. To me, one of the things that is interesting about this concept is how physicians have practiced evidence-based medicine through the years. To illustrate this, I would like to take you back to the time of the Napoleonic wars, at the turn of the 19th century, when the English Royal Navy battled for the control of the seas. Some of you may be familiar with a series of novels by a wonderful author of historical fiction named Patrick O’Brian. Between 1970 and 1999, O’Brian produced the 20-book series, which aficionados call ‘‘The Aubrey-Maturin Series’’3 (Fig. 2). From Cardiovascular Surgical PLLC, Denver, Colorado. This article was presented as the presidential address at the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Western Trauma Association, March 5, 2013. Address for reprints: Mark T. Metzdorff, MD, Cardiovascular Surgical PLLC, 1601 East 19th Ave, Suite 5000, Denver, CO 80218; email: [email protected]. DOI: 10.1097/TA.0b013e3182932bac J Trauma Acute Care Surg Volume 75, Number 6 927 Copyright © 2013 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited. J Trauma Acute Care Surg WTA Presidential Address Volume 75, Number 6 Those not familiar with the books may have experienced a medical training in Dublin and Paris and was said to have small taste of O’Brian’s world through the movie adaptation ‘‘dissected with Dupuytren.’’ It is universally agreed among ‘‘Master and Commander,’’ released in 2003. The movie was fans of the books that in the movie, Maturin is relatively an amalgam of several of the books, with small and larger overlooked and badly cast. Paul Bettany, while a fine actor, pieces taken from them. The twenty books are chronological bears no physical resemblance to the Stephen Maturin who andspanabout13yearsofhistory,inwhichthecharacters is so well-known and beloved by fans of the series. experience global events as they sail around the world in the What was Stephen Maturin’s medical world of 1790? course of their duties. There are dozens of memorable char- What passed for ‘‘evidence-based medicine’’ on board a ship acters and plot lines, which ebb and flow throughout the books, of the Royal Navy? A ship’s surgeon fulfilled many roles and there is incredible attention to details of the historical in such a vessel, and Captain Aubrey, while not as brilliant as settings, the natural landscapes and seascapes, and the de- his surgeon, demonstrated his understanding of the impor- pictions of life at sea and on land in the time of Lord Nelson tance of the naval surgeon in the optimal function of a fighting and Napoleon, and in the aftermath of the American Revolution. ship by selecting Dr. Maturin as his man. Of course, a com- I commend these books to anyone who loves a good story, for petent surgeon kept as many men as possible healthy enough they are as entertaining as they are informative. Patrick O’Brian to work the ship and fight effectively, but just as important, created a masterwork at a level with the best historical fiction morale was much improved if the men knew they would be ever written and has been rightly celebrated for it. well cared for in case of sickness or injury. So the naval sur- Most people who have seen the movie assume that geon’s duties encompassed both general health and trauma Captain Jack Aubrey of the Royal Navy, the character played treatment. In the category of general health maintenance, by Russell Crowe, is the main protagonist. However, in the Maturin was concerned with the prevention of scurvy, the literary series, there are really two coequal protagonists. The treatment of venereal diseases and yellow fever, the quarantine second and to my mind much more appealing and interesting of those with communicable diseases, and many other less character is Jack Aubrey’s dearest friend, Dr. Stephen Maturin. surgical aspects. Of course, he is a surgeon! In fact, he is much, much more It is beyond the scope of this address to give an ex- than a mere surgeon: He is a physician in the 18th century haustive treatise on the medicine of the day, but to illustrate sense who treats all ailments, a naturalist who is a member of aspects of the sea surgeon’s practice in keeping with my theme the Royal Society and regularly presents his work at Society of evidence-based medicine, I would like to use the examples meetings, a polyglot who speaks six languages fluently and of two issues that a naval surgeon of the 18th century would is conversant in four others, a passably good cellist, a superb have dealt with, in the context of the evidence of the day, ex- swordsman, a statesman, a gentleman, and a spy for the British tremity trauma and the prevention and treatment of scurvy. Admiralty, and he is an absolutely inept sailor. He mangles As an example of what constituted evidence-based the nautical names of the ship’s components and cannot pass surgery to the 18th century naval surgeon, consider signifi- between the dock and the ship without falling in the drink. cant trauma to the extremity. With the exception of uncom- Thus, he is constantly looked after in this regard by his ship- plicated fracture, such an injury usually meant amputation mates, who rightfully value him as a particularly renowned as the most effective treatment to avoid the dreaded compli- ship’s surgeon and a man who might someday save their lives. cation of gangrene, which in turn inevitably lead to death. Stephen Maturin is the illegitimate son of an Irish father The basis for this was centuries of observation, beginning and a Catalan mother and is described as short, swarthy, and with Hippocrates in the 5th century BC, that these wounds unkempt, belying his supreme intelligence and quick wit. He is progressed to life-threatening infection that could be avoided an unparalleled strategist in all of his dealings and, unlike most or treated by amputation, although observers did not truly surgeons, is rarely wrong while never in doubt. He took his understand the pathophysiology. By the end of the 18th century, the great French military surgical pioneer Baron Dominique Jean Larrey, nicknamed ‘‘Napoleon’s Surgeon,’’ was said to have brought amputation to ‘‘the peak of advancement and perfection.’’4 This was the period of the Napoleonic Wars, which are the background for the Aubrey/Maturin books. Between these two physicians 23 centuries apart came incremental im- provements in surgical technique and wound care including the use of the tourniquet and of vascular ligatures. However, Larrey, who made innumerable advances in battlefield sur- gical care, took the care of the injured extremity a step further by strongly advocating ‘‘primary amputation’’ in selected cases rather than waiting the more customary 3 weeks for suppuration to occur before amputation.5 In Napoleon’s 1812 march to Moscow, Larrey participated in a battle with 13,000 French casualties in a 15-hour period. He was said to have personally performed 200 operations, mostly amputations, in the 24-hour aftermathVabadnightoftraumacall.Hisvast Figure 2. The Aubrey-Maturin Series, by Patrick O’Brian. experience lead him to promote the practice of early 928 * 2013 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Copyright © 2013 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited. J Trauma Acute Care Surg Volume 75, Number 6 Metzdorff amputation when indicated, and he advocated saving the knee joint if not involved in the injury. Although on opposite sides of the political issue, he was supported in the idea of early am- putation by the British surgeon George James GuthrieV ‘‘Wellington’s Combat Surgeon,’’ whose work would possibly have been known by Surgeons of the Royal Navy,6 and this evidence-based practice is dramatically illustrated in the movie when Stephen amputates the wounded arm of the 12-year-old midshipman Lord Blakeney the evening after the ‘‘young gen- tleman’’ is wounded in battle. This particular vignette, however, is found nowhere in the books, although Stephen is awash in blood after every major engagement, amputating limbs and spreading sand on the deck to keep his footing. On the medical side, the history of the conquest of scurvy is both fascinating and illustrative. Much of what fol- lows about the history of scurvy comes from the excellent and interesting book Scurvy: How a Surgeon, a Mariner and a Gentleman Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail, by Stephen R.