T he family tragedy in 1976 gave birth to the trauma legend known as ATLS. In that year a plane piloted by the orthopaedic surgeon J Styner crashed in Nebraska. His wife was killed and four children seriously injured. Unfortunately for Dr Styner he found that the subsequent care received in the local hospital was inferior to what he was able to provide for 10 hours at the scene of the accident....

BACKGROUND Major trauma patients are invariably received in the emergency department by a combination of emergency department and trauma team staff. The initial assessment is largely protocol led, using Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) guidelines. The task of ordering and prescribing blood products often falls to the more junior members of this team. AIM The aim of this postal questionnair...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate whether the type of on-site care a trauma patient receives affects outcome. SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA The controversy regarding the prehospital care of trauma patients between Advanced Life Support (ALS) and Basic Life Support (BLS) is ongoing. Due to this unresolved controversy, as well as historical, cultural, and political factors, there are significant variations with ...

e ach year in the United States, burn injuries result in more than 500,000 hospital emergency department visits and approximately 50,000 acute admissions. Most burn injuries are relatively minor, and patients are discharged following outpatient treatment at the initial medical facility. Of the patients who require hospitalization, about 20,000 are admitted directly or by referral to hospitals w...

BACKGROUND Routine surgical exploration after penetrating upper extremity trauma (PUET) to exclude arterial injury leads to a large number of negative explorations and iatrogenic injuries. Selective non-operative management (SNOM) is gaining in favor for patients with PUET. The present study was undertaken to assess the validity of SNOM in PUET and to present a practical management algorithm. ...

BACKGROUND Survival after cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) using standard vasopressor therapy is disappointing. Vasopressin is a potent vasopressor that could become a useful therapeutic alternative in the treatment of cardiac arrest. AIMS The aim of this prehospital prospective cohort study was to assess the influence of treatment with vasopressin and hydroxyethyl starch solution (HHS) on...