Historical aspects of aeromedical transport and aerospace medicine – review

Abstract

The history of aeromedical transport and Aerospace Medicine consists in a pleasant journey to the past, with great prospects. This article describes how military medicine and wars advanced our understanding of human physiology, contributing to the development of various medical fields. The journey begins in Greek mythology, with Daedalus and Icarus, moving on to balloons, then on to airships, until we reach heavier than air flying machines. Man experienced a hostile environment unknown to him, low atmospheric pressure, hypoxia and hypothermia were just the beginning. Paul Bert, medical physiologist and father of Aerospace Medicine, already performed studies in hypobaric chambers, even with all the technological limitations of his time. A new era was born, in which man began to understand and master the physiological changes of altitude. The concept of aeromedical transport was introduced during the Napoleonic wars and consolidated in the Franco-Prussian War (1871), when 160 wounded men were transported from sieged Paris on hot air balloons. A great evolution in pre-hospital care and patient evacuation strategies occurred during the wars in Vietnam and Korea, stages that served as a templates for the structures of trauma care today. Wars continue to ravage humanity, taking lives and bringing pain and suffering to those who remain. Paradoxically, it is the same war that provides conditions for research and development of inventions and technology, which propelled the conquering of new worlds. The path is literal. It goes from the ingenuity of Greek mythology that enabled man to fly, to today, making us dream of conquering space, with the same adventurous personality of our predecessors. Here, the sky is not the limit.