[The importance of the composition and activation of trauma teams]

The shock room treatment of severely injured and polytraumatized patients has become established as a model for the treatment of non-traumatological critically ill patients. For the treatment of trauma patients the term trauma team is therefore used. This article presents the evidence-based requirements for the trauma shock room. In addition, the reasons why a trauma team improves the outcome are discussed. The composition of a trauma team depends partly on the organizational regulations of the individual hospitals but also on their level of care. This is relevant for certification as a trauma center. The criteria for trauma team activation is a decisive criterion for the quality of care and resource-saving use. For quality control and to reduce overtriage and undertriage, it is shown which parameters can be used to assess when trauma team activation has been appropriate.