Advances made in resuscitation: current status

Excerpt

The management of polytrauma patients has been revolutionised during the past 30 years. Major advances made in accident prevention, new car designs, rescue conditions, advanced trauma life support protocols, diagnostics, surgical approaches, intensive care support, implantology, antibiotics and pharmacotherapy in general have contributed to the overall reduction of mortality rate seen in this cohort of patients [ 1‐ 3]. Moreover, the philosophy of damage control surgery, a process to assist resuscitation by performing surgical maneuvers of short duration in the operating theatre with a minimal invasive approach, has been successful in reducing the additional physiological burden exerted by the second hit phenomena and thus protecting the patient of developing an exaggerated immune-inflammatory response leading to early development of multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) [ 4‐ 6]. …