A humanitarian mission in southern Iraq: utilization of the 7th Field Hospital of the Army of the Czech Republic--a report on its medical activities and working conditions.

Between April 24 and September 18, 2003, a total of 7,099 outpatient treatments were performed. Between June 3 and September 18, 2003, a total of 124 patients were surgically treated and 209 patients were hospitalized; the hospital recorded 1,239 bed-days, 137 of them in the intensive care unit. A total of 924 X-ray and ultrasound examinations were performed, as well as 10,014 laboratory tests. Local inhabitants accounted for 90.5% of the patients. In their practice, the doctors encountered a very wide spectrum of surgical and nonsurgical diagnoses. Part of the work was to support humanitarian activities, with supplies of humanitarian material, selection of children for specialized cardiosurgical treatment in the Czech Republic, and blood donations. Work in that unstable region was significantly complicated by the extreme climate and the high security risk.