Tactical emergency casualty care (TECC): guidelines for the provision of prehospital trauma care in high threat environments.

105 inTroducTion Civilian Tactical Emergency Medical Support (TEMS) has a long history in the United States. Enormous progress has been made during the past ten years in developing professional and operational standards within the field. However, to date, there still exists no standard of care within TEMS specifically, and more broadly for high threat pre-hospital trauma care. Current civilian first responder practices and principles do not adequately address the need for point of wounding care in atypical, high threat emergency response. The enclosed Tactical Emergency Casualty Care (TECC) guidelines are based upon the principles of Tactical Combat Casualty Care and specifically designed to address this operational gap.