A Sydney trauma surgeon who worked on the battlefield in Afghanistan has shared her wartime experience with a Wollongong audience.Dr Mary Langcake returned to St George Hospital in September last year after spending six weeks working in a Dutch-run hospital in Afghanistan.War taught innovation, Dr Langcake said yesterday."There's no doubt that many of the advances we've made in trauma have started on the battlefield," she said."It was an experience that taught me a lot ... particularly in things that are outside my normal field."Dr Langcake, trauma director at St George, was among the leading NSW trauma medical specialists speaking in Wollongong at the Institute of Trauma and Injury Management conference for 270 medical, nursing, allied health, pre-hospital and military professionals.In July last year, Dr Langcake arrived in the Uruzgan Province in southern Afghanistan, having seen the results of "one or two" shootings during her training.Over the next six weeks, Australian Special Forces troops came under attack and sustained the heaviest combat casualties in any single attack since the Vietnam War.Based at the "world class" Dutch Role 2E hospital in Camp Holland in Tarin Kowt, gunshot wounds were suddenly a daily occurrence."I would see gunshot wounds, blast injuries and limb injuries," Dr Langcake said."I learnt a lot about managing major haemorrhages."There was another first for the adult trauma surgeon: children. She said Afghani children made up 29 per cent of the cases they saw."It left me with a lot to deal with," Dr Langcake said.South Eastern Sydney Illawarra Area Health Service chief executive Terry Clout said the conference, which continues today, was intended to equip health professionals with the latest information and research.