A Surgical Mind at War: Anatomical Thought and Operative Practice in the 6th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, 1951

Histories of surgical practice during the Korean War have largely centered on United States Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) units, leaving frontline surgical activities of the Republic of Korea Army comparatively underrepresented.Recently, a contemporaneous operative logbook of the 6th MASH, covering April-December 1951, was identified among privately donated materials.This study examines the logbook as a primary historical source.Monthly operative case distributions, diagnostic categories, and anatomical illustrations were analyzed in relation to the operational context of mid-1951.Particular attention was given to the proportion of laparotomies and to the structural features of the drawings accompanying selected entries.Between April and December 1951, 168 operative cases were recorded, with laparotomies constituting a substantial proportion in several peak months.While penetrating abdominal trauma likely contributed significantly to this distribution, the logbook also documents nontraumatic conditions-including appendicitis, hernia, cholecystectomy, and panperitonitisindicating that the unit functioned as a forward general surgical service rather than solely as a trauma facility.Notably, the records include carefully rendered anatomical illustrations with labeled vascular and visceral structures, reflecting disciplined spatial reasoning and formal anatomical knowledge applied under mobile wartime conditions.The logbook demonstrates that Korean frontline surgery in 1951 was not merely reactive trauma management but a structured continuation of general surgical practice grounded in anatomical thought.By bringing this source to light, this study restores the presence of Korean military surgeons to the historiography of the Korean War and highlights the persistence of surgical cognition amid wartime instability.