Jan. 15 (Bloomberg) -- More than 90 percent of U.S. soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan survive, 5 to 10 percent more than in earlier conflicts, according to a report. That means more veterans need help dealing with injuries afterwards, a proponent says.

The improvement in survival stems from better body armor and forward placement of mobile surgical teams using new equipment and supplies designed to stanch bleeding more quickly, said the report today in the Journal of Craniofacial Surgery.

The finding, by an Army medical corps commander, suggests more soldiers may be facing years of therapy for life-altering injuries that include loss of limbs, paralysis and neurological damage, said Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

``The medical advances and the trauma care are amazing,'' Rieckhoff, a former Army Lieutenant who served in Iraq, said in a Jan. 11 telephone interview. ``But the injuries people are surviving with are much more catastrophic than anything we've ever seen before, including multiple amputations, severe head wounds and blindness.''

Body armor used in Iraq, made by companies such as Jacksonville, Florida-based Armor Holdings Inc. and New York- based Diversified Biotech Holdings Corp., better protects the chest area compared with flak jackets used in previous conflicts, according to the report written by Col. W. Bryan Gamble, a surgeon and commander of the Army's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.

Tourniquets, Bandages

Additionally, new tourniquets now in use can be applied one- handed, and bandages, made by companies such as closely held HemCon Medical Technologies Inc. of Portland, Oregon, are coated with clot-inducing medicine to prevent rapid blood loss, Gamble said. Soldiers also are being treated more quickly in the field by mobile surgical teams before being flown to permanent medical facilities within the combat theater, he said.

``The majority of fatalities in the history of battle are the result of blood loss prior to receiving medical care,'' Gamble wrote. In Iraq, ``the wounded are only minutes away from point of injury to care,'' he said.

Gamble's report is the second reviewing soldier survival in Iraq presented this month.

A study released Jan. 5 said that for every U.S. fatality in Iraq as of September 2006, there were 16 soldiers injured, ``the highest killed-to-wounded ratio in U.S. history,'' according to author Linda Bilmes, a Harvard University researcher and former assistant secretary of Commerce during the Clinton Administration.

In comparison, 2.6 soldiers were injured for every one who died in Vietnam and fewer than two soldiers were wounded for each death in World War I or II, according to the paper presented at a meeting of the Allied Social Sciences Association in Chicago.

Long-Term Cost

The long-term cost of providing medical care and disability benefits to Iraq and Afghanistan veterans will run from $350 to $700 billion, Bilmes said.

The low-end estimate was based on a scenario in which no additional troops would be sent to Iraq, with withdrawals beginning this year and ending by 2010. The high estimate assumes a surge in troops in 2007 and an increase to 2 million of the total number of soldiers serving in the conflict.

The VA is already ``overwhelmed by the volume of returning veterans and the seriousness of their health care needs,'' Bilmes wrote in her report.

The Veterans Benefit Administration, which provides disability benefits to veterans, has a current backlog of 400,000 claims. It takes an average six months to process a new claim and almost two years to handle an appeal, she reported.

``While it is welcome news and a credit to military medicine that more soldiers are surviving grievous wounds, the existence of so many veterans, with such a high level of injuries, is yet another aspect of this war,'' she wrote.

To contact the reporter on this story: Rob Waters in San Francisco at rwaters5@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: January 15, 2007 01:01 EST