The concept of a trauma system as public health policy has developed substantially during the 30 years since publication of Accidental Death and Disability: The Neglected Disease of Modern Society. The military experience with casualties established the public expectation that grievously injured citizens should be expected to survive if a system enables a team of experts to work smoothly togeth...

1 Albrecht E, Taffe P, Yesrin B, Schoettker P, Decosterd I, Hugli O. Undertreatment of acute pain (olioanalgesia) and medical practice variation in prehospital analgesia of adult trauma patients: a 10 yr retrospective study. Br J Anaesthesia 2012; 110: 96–106 2 Ricard-Hibon A, Chollet C, Saada S, Loridant B, Marty J. A quality control program for acute pain management in out-of-hospital critica...

BACKGROUND Road traffic injuries (RTIs) are the eighth leading cause of death worldwide, with an estimated 90% of RTIs occurring in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) like Brazil. There has been minimal research in evaluation of delays in transport of RTI patients to trauma centers in LMICs. The objective of this study is to determine specific causes of delays in prehospital transport of ...

BACKGROUND Prehospital severity scores can be used in routine prehospital care, mass casualty care, and military triage. If computers could reliably calculate clinical scores, new clinical and research methodologies would be possible. One obstacle is that vital signs measured automatically can be unreliable. We hypothesized that Signal Quality Indices (SQI's), computer algorithms that different...

Methods Cyclists admitted to a London Major Trauma Centre were identified from Emergency Department Records, the Trauma audit and research network, Major Trauma Ward Lists and intensive care admission documents. Admission toxicology and prehospital and emergency department documentation were analysed to identify patients who had negative alcohol tests and those who had elevated blood alcohol le...

This article analyzes the effectiveness of designated trauma centers in Florida concerning reduction in the mortality risk of severely injured trauma victims. A bivariate probit model is used to compute the differential impact of two alternative acute care treatment sites. The alternative sites are defined as (1) a nontrauma center (NC) or (2) a designated trauma center (DTC). An instrumental-v...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether heart period variability provides added value in identifying the need for lifesaving interventions (LSI) in individual trauma patients with normal standard vital signs upon early medical assessment. DESIGN Retrospective database review. SETTING Helicopter transport to Level 1 trauma center and first 24 hrs of in-hospital care. PATIENTS Prehospital trauma pat...

This issue of Prehospital and Disaster Medicine contains the second series of special reports on the Framework for disaster research and evaluation. This series of papers represents work done by Birnbaum, Daily, O’Rourke, and Loretti to define and illustrate guidelines for the study of disaster events. The Framework papers are published with the realization that there are other researchers and ...