[Inpatient surgical treatment in mass casualty situations and disasters-Principles, targets, concepts, preparation]

The war in Ukraine and the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic have moved the resilience of the healthcare system in Germany into the focus of a broad discussion. The preparation for such a damage situation is characterized by the relationship between the available treatment capacity and needs which go far beyond the norm. The aim of a resilient healthcare system must be to adequately react to such exceptional situations. Particularly in acute disaster and mass casualty situations, medical standards and an individualized surgical treatment must be maintained for as long as possible.

The aim of this article is to elucidate the current terminology on medical treatment of patients in disasters from a surgical perspective, to further develop available concepts and possible concepts of crisis management based on three schematically presented scenarios. Furthermore, the general reaction possibilities for mobilization of treatment capacities are described.

In order to uniformly collate the quality of medical treatment in a damage situation, it is meaningful to include the stages of individualized treatment, compensated crisis care and decompensated crisis care. Within the framework of a mass casualty situation or a disaster, traumatological and surgical patients are predominant and the aim must be to maintain or restore the stage of a compensated crisis management. Depending on the extent of the damage situation, this can only be realized in a timely manner independent of state boundaries and by a superordinate central management structure. For a comprehensive provision of surgical treatment capacities, the depiction of a continuous overview of the situation with current resources and structural data of the hospitals in the affected region is necessary.

The aim of all efforts and preparations must therefore be to durably strengthen hospitals and to train and develop this with respect to coping with a damage situation in disaster medicine. In this respect it is important to establish a consensus on terminology, the type of treatment and the tactical strategic principles of surgical treatment to cope with a disaster or damage situation.