Introduction The use of Focused Assessment With Sonography in Trauma (FAST) in management of the trauma patient has become increasingly widespread over the past three decades. Serial improvements in ultrasound technology, its portability, and the quality of the images have…
Emergency department thoracotomy (EDT) remains a formidable tool within the trauma surgeon’s armamentarium. Since its introduction during the 1960s, the use of this procedure has ranged from sparing to liberal. At many urban trauma centers, this procedure has found a…
Traumatic injury causes more than 5 million deaths annually, accounting for approximately 9% of all deaths worldwide. From 1999 to 2015 in the United States, injury was responsible for 21% of all years of potential life lost prior to age…
Fluids have been administered intravenously, subcutaneously, and per rectum since the 1600s. The modern description of the circulatory system in 1638 by William Harvey allowed the concept to slowly progress. William O’Shaughnessy theorized that patients suffering from volume loss secondary…
The concept of immediate and appropriate airway management spans all disciplines of medicine. Achieving, protecting, and maintaining the airway have been well recognized as the initial steps necessary in resuscitation of the critically ill or injured patient. The basic premise…
The evolution of prehospital care in this country has an interesting and continually evolving record. Although there is recorded history of wagons and carts being used to transport the sick and injured as early as 900 ace , the term…
Accounting for 16.4% of all injury deaths in the United States, 39,733 people died from firearm injuries in 2017. Of these firearm deaths, 60% were suicides and 36.6% were homicides. Wounds caused by firearms will be encountered not only in…
On a busy Baghdad bridge spanning the great Tigris River coursing through Iraq from north to south, a crowd of people intermingled in their bidirectional flow. Most were hurrying to and from the nearby market on the east side of…
Explosives have been used in every major conflict in which the United States has been involved and today are the primary mechanism of injury among U.S. combatants ( Fig. 1 ). Explosives, most notably improvised explosive devices (IEDs), are also…
Introduction Large-scale events like the destruction of the Twin Towers in New York City, Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, and the COVID-19 pandemic have focused the attention of surgeons on the challenges posed by mass casualty events (MCEs). Even though…