Chapter 1 - Trauma and Trauma Systems Flashcards
Trauma
pg 3
- a physical injury or wound caused by external force or violence.
- Can be either blunt or penetrating
- 3rd leading cause of death in US; 1st for people under 44.
Penetrating Trauma
pg3
- when an object (arrow, knife, bullet, or other object) enters body and exchanges energy with human tissue causing injury.
Blunt Trauma
pg 3
- injury that occurs as energy and collision forces associated with an object - not the object itself - enter the body and damage the tissue
The five steps of the public health care model
pg 4
- Surveillance
- Risk analysis
- Intervention Development
- Implementation
- Evaluation
Surveillance
pg 4
- collection of data to identify the significance, existance, and characteristics of disease
- The study of disease based on such surveillance is called epidemiology
Risk Analysis
pg 4
- looks at disease and determines various factors that impact its development, course, and consequences
- Haddon Matrix - tool used to ID risks associated with trauma
Haddon Matrix
pg 4
- 3x3 matrix - tool used to help ID risk elements associated with trauma
- when applied to trauma it segregates causative and contributive factors that can be modified to reduce trauma incidence, severity, and outcome.
- Pre-event - Things that can be mitigated before event or injury takes place ie training, education saftey equiptment, protocols
- Event - factors that exist during event; occupant health, drugs & alcohol, weather
- Post-Event - factors that worsen or improve victims outcome; ie access to EMS systems, weather, victims health
Intervention Development
pg 5
- creates or modifies programs to reduce both the incidence and the seriousness of trauma
- ie. safety developments for vehicles and roadways; ie OnStar, airbags, and barriers that deflect/absorb impact
- EMS was created as a way to provide better care for injured patients
Implementation
pg 6
- Putting an intervention into practice; ie enforcing traffic laws, reducing speed limits in hazardous areas, education etc.
Evaluation
pg 6
- repeating the surveillance to ensure implemented measures are effective
- injury prevention is an evolving role of the modern EMS system
Level I Trauma Center
pg 7
- Regional Trauma Center
- Commits resources to address all types of specialty trauma 24hrs/day x 7
- usually a medical university teaching center
Level II Trauma Center
pg 7
- Area Trauma Center
- Commits resources to address the most common trauma emergencies with surgical capability 24/7; will stabilize and transport for speciaty cases to Level I facility
- some services may be on-call rather than in-house
Level III Trauma Center
pg 8
- Community Trauma Center
- Commits to special emergency department training and has some surgical capability, but will usually stabilize and transfer seriously inhured trauma patients to a higher level trauma center as needed.
Level IV Trauma Center
pg 8
- Trauma Facility
- Remote areas, small community hospital or medical facility designated as a trauma recieving facility. Stabilizing and prepare seriously injured for transport, to a higher level facility, often by air.
Specialty Centers
pg 8
- Specialty focus centers
- neurocenters
- burn centers
- pediatric trauma centers
- hand/limb replantation
- hyperbaric oxygenation
MOI Analysis & Index of Suspicion
pg 9
mentally recreate incident from evidence available at the scene
- Identify
- strength of forces involved
- direction of force
- areas of pt most likely affected
- Index of Suspicion - mental summation of anticipated injuries based on analysis of event
Physical Signs that suggest serious trauma include
pg 9
- S&S of Shock
- Signs of internal Head Injury
If you suspect internal injury, closely monitor vital signs for shock and altered mental status
Environmental Impact
pg 9
- anticipate the impact that environmental extremes may play on your assessment
- Adverse weather may merit moving patient to ambulance earlier in assesment
Primary Assessment - Trauma
pg 10
- Form General Impression
- Evaluate need for C-Spine considerations
- Evaluate A/B/C’s
- Determine need transport priority
*Evaluation of C-spine depends on whether patient is a reliable reporter of spinal
**If you suspect the patient is in cardiac arrest begin assessment with CAB
Golden Period
pg10
- time from incident to surgery
Trauma Triage Criteria
pg 11
- GCS
- Vital Signs
- Anatomy of the injury
- MOI
- Special Considerations: age, existing medical conditions
Trauma Registry
pg 11
- a uniform and standard set of data collected by regional trauma centers
- used to analyze types of patients and injuries responded to and ID factors that +/- survival
CDC Field Triage Guidelines