[Stress tolerance of patients with multiple injuries and its significance for operative care]

Treatment of severely injured patients requires exact planning and mature management. For practical reasons the classification into 4 phases has been introduced: acute, primary, secondary and tertiary phases. During the acute phase all life-saving operations are performed. In the primary, secondary and tertiary phases the procedures vary according to priority. Reviewed on the basis of 781 severely injured patients, the most reliable criteria are: pulmonary artery pressure, creatinine, bilirubin, extravascular lung water, the PaO2/FiO2 quotient and fluid balance.