Intensive Care Medicine (or Critical Care, the terms are used interchangeably) is an evolving specialty both within the UK and worldwide. It has recently been established as a UK speciality in it’s own right, and is at the centre of the modern acute hospital, responsible for managing the sickest and most complex patients. There is a growing cadre of critical care specialists in the UK, underpinned by a large number of doctors in training within the specialty. Management of patients with severe traumatic injury is provided by intensive care specialists, often in conjunction with a range of other professionals such as surgeons and interventional radiologists. The management of these patients, who have competing complex injuries can be challenging. Traumatic injury is recognised as a significant cause of preventable mortality and such patients are now clustered within Major Trauma Centres across the UK. The Defence Medical Services of the UK have spent the last 10 years managing patients with very severe traumatic injuries, first in Iraq and most recently in Afghanistan. The lessons learnt from this experience has filtered through to the NHS, resulting in many changes to established practice. Whilst several books have been published based on this experience, none have focused on the intensive care management of such patients, which represents a vital link in the chain of survival from injury to recovery.

Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) has saved hundreds of lives during our nation's conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nearly 90 percent of combat fatalities occur before a casualty reaches a medical treatment facility. Therefore, the prehospital phase of care is needed to focus on reducing the number of combat deaths. However, few military physicians have had training in this area and, at the onset of hostilities, most combat medics, corpsmen, and pararescue personnel in the U.S. military have been trained to perform battlefield trauma care through civilian-based trauma courses. These courses are not designed for the prehospital combat environment and do not reflect current practices in the area of prehospital care. TCCC was created to train Soldiers and medical personnel on current best practices for medical treatment from the point of injury to evacuation to Role 3 facilities

An ideal resource for intensivists caring for trauma victims in the ICU, Trauma Intensive Care provides point-of-care guidelines for establishing the priorities of care, minimizing complications, and returning patients to the best possible functional outcome.

Advances in trauma care have accelerated over the past decade, spurred by the significant burden of injury from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Between 2005 and 2013, the case fatality rate for United States service members injured in Afghanistan decreased by nearly 50 percent, despite an increase in the severity of injury among U.S. troops during the same period of time. But as the war in Afghanistan ends, knowledge and advances in trauma care developed by the Department of Defense (DoD) over the past decade from experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq may be lost. This would have implications for the quality of trauma care both within the DoD and in the civilian setting, where adoption of military advances in trauma care has become increasingly common and necessary to improve the response to multiple civilian casualty events. Intentional steps to codify and harvest the lessons learned within the military's trauma system are needed to ensure a ready military medical force for future combat and to prevent death from survivable injuries in both military and civilian systems. This will require partnership across military and civilian sectors and a sustained commitment from trauma system leaders at all levels to assure that the necessary knowledge and tools are not lost. A National Trauma Care System defines the components of a learning health system necessary to enable continued improvement in trauma care in both the civilian and the military sectors. This report provides recommendations to ensure that lessons learned over the past decade from the military's experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq are sustained and built upon for future combat operations and translated into the U.S. civilian system.

"This book is designed to deliver combat casualty care information that will facilitate transition from a continental US or civilian practice to the combat care environment. Establishment of the Joint Theater Trauma System and the Joint Theater Trauma Registry, coupled with the efforts of the authors, has resulted in the creation of the most comprehensive, evidence-based depiction of the latest advances in combat casualty care. Lessons learned in Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) have been fortified with evidence-based recommendations to improve casualty care. The educational curriculum was designed overall to address the leading causes of preventable death and disability in OEF and OIF. Specifically, the generalist combat casualty care provider is presented requisite information for optimal cae of US combat casualties in the first 72 to 96 hours after injury. The specialist provider is afforded similiar information, supplemented by lessons learned for definitive care of host nation patients."--

Concise yet uptodate review of the most commonly encountered topics reated to the critical care, taruama and emergency arena. All facets of medical profession may benefit, including doctors, nurses, pharmacists, respiratory therapist, physical, occupational, speech/lahnguage therapist. Emergency medical techs will also find it very useful in the field.

Compiled by internationally recognized experts in trauma critical care,this sourcediscusses the entire gamut of critical care management of the trauma patient and covers several common complications and conditions treated in surgical intensive care units that are not specifically related to trauma. Utilizing evidence-based guidelines where they ex