Thoracic trauma

TRAUMA TO THE TORSO

Lec 2 Dr.Mohanned Al shalah
The torso is generally regarded as the area between the neck and
the groin, made up of the thorax and abdomen.
Death from trauma has had a ‘trimodal’ distribution:
50% of deaths occurring in the pre-hospital environment.
30% during the first few hours .
The remaining 20% occurring later.

The Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) is the cornerstone of advanced resuscitation.
The principles include:
• early assessment and primary survey;
• simultaneous aggressive resuscitation;

• a careful secondary survey with full examination:
– front to back;
– top to toe;
• transfer to a definitive site of care.

Trauma team was developed to enable a careful assessment to be made in patients with multiple injuries and a treatment plan to be developed that recognises the need to treat the greatest threats to life first and ensure the early control of major bleeding and contamination.

The philosophy also includes the concept of triage:
The sorting of patients, with the most severely injured patients being treated first;
the sorting of injuries, so that the most compelling threats to life receive priority For specific anatomy.