Trauma Management - Intro

Anthony M. Herd, MD, CCFP (EM)

A presentation offered at Emergency Medicine 2004. A conference held in Saskatoon on October 29 & 30, 2004

Trauma Epidemiology:

• Incidence: unknown
• Affects young and potentially most productive members of society
• There are more deaths and years-of-life lost to trauma than to cancer and coronary artery disease combined
• 3% of injuries are fatal
• 20% of injuries are disabling
• 6% of injuries are permanently disabling
• Direct trauma costs are greater than $12 billion annually

Deaths from trauma occur in a trimodal distribution:

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This highlights the need for primary, secondary and tertiary reviews of all trauma patients.