DRDC Suffield Blast Footwear - gichd

3. Results and Discussion
The results of the trials are summarized in Table 3, Figure 4, Figure 5, and Figure 6.
For all five conventional demining boots except the Force Ware boot, FSLLs subjected
to 75g and 50g charges sustained severe open contaminated injuries that would have
definitely resulted in a below knee amputations. The Force Ware boot was the only
footwear that may have resulted in a salvageable limb against a 50g charge because the
surgeon felt that the injury could be treated with either an amputation or a limb sparing
reconstruction. Since the FSLLs in the Force Ware boot would have required
amputations against all 25g shots, the results for the 50g charge appeared anomalous.
However, additional tests should perhaps be conducted with the Force Ware boot
using charge sizes of approximately 50g or C4 to confirm this.
Except for one Zeman boot, all three tests using each of the Aigis, Wellco,
Anonymate, and Zeman boots against 25g charges resulted in MTS scores of 1A and
1B, indicating salvageable limbs. However, even if the FSLL received the same injury
score, the actual injuries varied a great deal. In the case of all three tests with the
Anonymate boot, one test with the Zeman, and one test with the Wellco, the doctor
assigned values of 1A and 1B, but expressed an uncertainty about whether the limbs
were salvageable because of significant and/or multiple fractures. However, he felt
that the limbs were “probably” salvageable and the scores with 1 reflected this fact.
Two of the three Aigis and Wellco boots tested against 25g surrogate AP mines also
received MTS scores of 1A and 1B, but would have resulted in definitely salvageable
limbs as the injuries typically consisted of joint dislocations, limited fractures, and
minimal soft tissue damage. The third test with the Aigis would have resulted in a
salvageable foot, but significant soft tissue injury. The third test with the Wellco
would have likely resulted in a viable leg, but the fractured calcaneous and forefoot
dislocation would have made this a difficult injury. The FSLLs using the American
Combat boots required amputations for all trials performed for all charge sizes.
The three repeat trials did not show completely consistent injuries and do not allow for
statistically significant conclusions. However, the results documented show a trend
similar to various tests completed by the United States Department of Defence [1, 4]
where the conventional boots tested do not protect against medium and large charge
sizes, but do provide some protection against small charges.
The discrepancies in the tests could be the result of small differences in the explosive
event because of the way the charge was packed, the depth of burial, the soil
characteristics, the orientation of the charge, subtle differences in the initiation train or
in how the explosive loading was delivered up to the leg.
The two platform boots (Fevam platform and Samad Rubber Works mine shoe) were
not part of the primary focus of this study on demining boots. For both, a limited
number of cases was examined because there was a restricted number of sample boots
available for testing. The Fevam platform was only subjected to two tests and greater
damage was observed at 50 grams than at 75 grams C4. Like the Force Ware
DRDC Suffield TM 2005-009 9