The Trauma Pro

I’m devoting the next two posts to revisiting the management of hemo- and/or pneumothorax.

Chest tubes are a common tool in managing thoracic injury.

Admit it.

Oftentimes, trauma patients arrive, are not very responsive, and are not carrying an ID.

The retrograde urethrogram is one of the few diagnostic tests without a fancy CT or advanced diagnostic imaging replacement.

Preparation and planning will only take you so far.

We’ve covered all the preparation for field amputation.

Now it’s time to look at the logistics involved in carrying out a field amputation/dismemberment.

Various trauma professionals (prehospital providers, emergency physicians, surgeons) may provide this “service” in many places around the world.

There are basically four indications, two absolute and two relative: Absolute #1: entrapped extremity with a lengthy extrication and a physiologically impaired patient who does not respond to fluids.

Field amputation is rarely considered, and for good reason.

In my previous post, I reviewed some of the basics of Morrel-Lavallee lesions.

Anyone who takes care of blunt trauma has seen the Morel-Lavallee lesion (M-L).

The practice of medicine steadily advances, and trauma surgery is no exception.

One metric in the TQIP program that most U.S. trauma centers subscribe to measures time to hip fracture fixation.

Several decades ago, I took care of a patient who posed an interesting challenge.

How often have you heard this phrase in a talk or seen it in a journal article: “Maintain a high index of suspicion” What does this mean???

In my last two posts on this topic, I provided the history of the development of a mechanical CPR device.

In my last post, I provided information on the history of the mechanical CPR device.

It’s very common to see major trauma patients arriving in the trauma bay with a mechanical CPR device strapped to their chest, pounding away.

Nearly universally, trauma surgeons at Level I and Level II trauma centers must be at the bedside within 15 minutes of the patient’s arrival.

Resuscitative thoracotomy is a (sometimes) life-saving procedure reserved for trauma patients in extremis.

I analyzed the first of two PI clock scenarios in my last post.