Pre-hospital trauma care

The chain of survival in outcome from major trauma is equally as important as its well established concept in survival from cardiac arrest. Preventive measures have been shown to be an effective means of reducing death from trauma, and the standard of pre-hospital care for those surviving the primary injury is improving in many trauma systems. The optimal pre-hospital interventions are still debated, but evidence suggests that patients with severe head injury in particular will benefit significantly from pre-hospital rapid-sequence intubation and field stabilization, whereas those with penetrating injury require rapid evacuation to hospital with minimal intervention. Pre-hospital asystole from trauma has a universally poor outcome. When delivering appropriate care, several helicopter-based systems have shown improvements in outcome compared with ground-based systems. The International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation recently published guidelines on resuscitation, with particular relevance to pre-hospital trauma care. The importance of bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation, oxygenation, and the avoidance of iatrogenic morbidity are stressed.