[Multiple injuries in mass accidents]

The treatment starts with reanimation, managing the shock, followed by life-saving surgery on the central nervous system, chest, abdomen, large blood vessels and the uropoietic system. From the very beginning the therapy should be conducted on an intradisciplinary basis, first with the anaesthesiologist, later with other specialists as required. Once the patient's life has been saved, treatment of eyes, hands and systematic attention to extremities should follow. Shock has to be managed within 24 hours. Luxations of large joints should be reposed on the date of injury, open fractures closed, all fractures immobilized in favourable position. No extension should be applied in patients suffering from brain injuries; fractures of the femur should be fixed surgically by a second team in the course of the neurosurgical operation. A stomatologist's assistance makes general anaesthesia possible even with fractures of the jaw. In mass accidents the therapeutic plan for the polytraumatized should be fixed on the following day. A mass accident involving 35 injured treated within two and a half hours demonstrates this procedure in 7 polytraumatized persons.