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Miscellaneous procedures
Published in A Stewart Whitley, Jan Dodgeon, Angela Meadows, Jane Cullingworth, Ken Holmes, Marcus Jackson, Graham Hoadley, Randeep Kumar Kulshrestha, Clark’s Procedures in Diagnostic Imaging: A System-Based Approach, 2020
A Stewart Whitley, Jan Dodgeon, Angela Meadows, Jane Cullingworth, Ken Holmes, Marcus Jackson, Graham Hoadley, Randeep Kumar Kulshrestha
Major trauma is the widely accepted as the leading cause of mortality and morbidity in patients under 45 years of age [4]. The primary objective of managing this category of patients is to reduce death and disability. This requires interdisciplinary cooperation among paramedics (pre-hospital setting), surgeons, anaesthetists (anaesthesiologists), nurses, radiologists and radiographers (technologists) in the hospital setting. The main task is to stabilise the patient as soon as possible. Here time is the most important factor for mortality and morbidity. Specifically, the time elapsed from the trauma to the resuscitation and therapeutic interventions. The American College of Surgeons’ Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) is the international trauma algorithm used to standardise the resuscitation and subsequent workflows. The ATLS was developed by an orthopaedic surgeon (James Styner) who was involved in a tragic air crash in 1976. His wife was killed, and he and his three children sustained critical injuries. Styner observed the uncoordinated trauma management of himself and his family first hand [5].
Prehospital trauma care evolution, practice and controversies: need for a review
Published in International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion, 2020
While the earlier versions were predominantly consensus based, the newer versions have been incorporating evidence-based practices. ATLS also has a prehospital version called the PHTLS and a version for nurses. The ATLS program provides participants with a safe, reliable method for immediate management of the injured patient and the basic knowledge necessary to do the following:Assess the patient’s condition rapidly and accuratelyResuscitate and stabilize the patient according to priorityDetermine if the patient’s needs exceed a facility’s capacityArrange appropriately for the patient’s inter-hospital transfer (who, what, when and how)Assure that optimum care is provided and that the level of care does not deteriorate at any point during the evaluation, resuscitation or transfer process.3