Alexander the Great's Life-Threatening Thoracic Trauma

Life-saving or life-threatening? Prehospital thoracostomy for thoracic trauma.

A bus was involved in a roll-over road traffic accident. Most occupants were ejected from the vehicle. Primary triage revealed 9 dead, 1 P4 (unsalvageable), 5 P1 (immediate life threat) and 30 less severely injured patients. Two prehospital doctors performed a secondary triage, provided medical supervision and performed critical care interventions where necessary. A young man initially triaged ...

Complex Trauma of the Limbs “limb and Life Threatening Injuries”

Complex limb trauma are extremely severe and pose a threat both to the patient’s life, because of their systemic impact, as well as to the vitality of the traumatized limb, because of potentially severe septic complications. Post-traumatic (post fracture) osteitis is most often a consequence of an open fracture (always contaminated) or a closed operated fracture which was contaminated by pathog...

The Resuscitation Greats

John Snow’s work on resuscitation is less well known than his contributions to the scientific foundations of anaesthesia [1]. However, together with his understanding of the physiopathology of respiration, it was not the least of the reasons for his fundamental contributions to anaesthesia. His initial work on resuscitation with asphyxiated stillborn infants, was published in 1841 [2], but, as ...

The Resuscitation Greats

Franz Kuhn (1866–1929), a German surgeon, made a significant practical and scientific contribution towards the development of modern anaesthesia and emergency medicine. He developed modern, scientifically based concepts in close correlation to practical inventions for every day use. All of his studies and developments were patient orientated and led to remarkable improvements in patient safety....

Thoracic trauma