SUMMARY The Standardized Trauma and Resuscitation Team Training (S.T.A.R.T.T.) course focuses on training multidisciplinary trauma teams: surgeons/physicians, registered nurses (RNs), respiratory therapists (RTs) and, most recently, prehospital personnel. The S.T.A.R.T.T. curriculum highlights crisis management (CRM) skills: communication, teamwork, leadership, situational awareness and resourc...

The larynx and surrounding soft tissues are vulnerable to injury during athletics despite protective equipment and rule modifications. Laryngeal injuries are uncommon but potentially fatal conditions that pose risks to the voice, airway, and esophagus of athletes who sustain blunt or penetrating neck trauma. Common symptoms and signs of laryngeal trauma include hoarseness, dyspnea, hemoptysis, ...

Extradural haematomas are commonly associated with direct trauma to the temporal bones of the cranium resulting in damage to the middle meningeal artery or its branches. A case is presented of an occipital skull fracture with venous sinus bleeding that resulted in a posterior cranial fossa extradural haematoma. Bleeding in this area, if unrecognised, may lead rapidly to respiratory arrest secon...

Chylothorax was probably first described by Aseli in 1677 (cited by Kirkland, 1965). It can occur neonatally and during infancy, in childhood, and in adult life. In the neonatal period less than 20 cases had been recorded up to 1965 (Kirkland, 1965). These were considered to be due to a congenital defect in the thoracic duct, and in a few to birth trauma, convulsions, or respiratory obstruction...

Trauma is a major factor that contributes to the risk for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Biomarkers that predict the risk, diagnosis, treatment response and prognosis of ARDS after trauma have been widely investigated. In addition to their applications in clinical diagnosis and treatment, these biomarkers provide important insights into our understanding of the pathogenesis of ARDS...

BACKGROUND We aimed to investigate the protective potential of the thoracic cage on the parenchyma in response to blunt trauma from different directions in an animal model. METHODS Female Wistar albino rats were divided into control, anterolateral, lateral and posterolateral trauma groups, with six rats in each group. A weight of 500 g was dropped from a height of 40 cm on the left hemithorax...

BACKGROUND In this article, the outcomes, indications and methods of emergency department service resuscitative thoracotomy in cardiac and/or respiratory arrest patients after thoracic trauma are discussed. METHODS Between January 2004 and December 2010, nine resuscitative thoracotomies were performed after thoracic trauma in the emergency department of our hospital. The records of the patien...

BACKGROUND Opioid analgesics are used in most trauma systems, and only a few studies report on the use of ketamine for prehospital analgesia. In a low-cost rural trauma system in Iraq paramedics have been using prehospital ketamine analgesia for ten years. This study aims to evaluate the effects of prehospital analgesia on physiologic trauma severity indicators and compare the effect of ketamin...

Polytrauma is a syndrome with multiple injuries of defined severity. Patients with chest injuries have a higher possibility to have a spine trauma. In patient with vertebral fracture the prevalence of concomitant thoracic injuries is 2.9%. Thoracic trauma is a common cause of morbidity and mortality in polytraumatized patient and acute spinal cord injury is one of the most causes of disability ...

Fat embolism syndrome is a well-recognised sequela of long bone trauma as well as intramedullary orthopaedic procedures. However, it has rarely been described following manipulation, reduction of fracture, and application of external fixator. Furthermore, bilateral ocular blindness is seldom the first manifestation; instead respiratory and other cerebral symptoms being most common. We describe ...