Lockey D., Lyon R., Davies G. Resuscitation 2013; 84 (6): 738-742
"Major trauma is the leading worldwide cause of death in young adults. The mortality from traumatic cardiac arrest remains high but survival with good neurological outcome from cardiopulmonary arrest following major trauma has been regularly reported. Rapid, effective intervention is required to address potential reversible causes of traumatic cardiac arrest if the victim is to survive. Current ILCOR guidelines do not contain a standard algorithm for management of traumatic cardiac arrest. We present a simple algorithm to manage the major trauma patient in actual or imminent cardiac arrest...
The requirement to rapidly address a number of potentially reversible pathologies in a short time period lends the management of traumatic cardiac arrest to a simple treatment algorithm. A standardised approach may prevent delay in diagnosis and treatment and improve current poor survival rates."
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SCANCRIT.COM
June 30, 2013 by K.
"Lockey et al recently, in Resuscitation, published an algorithm for traumatic cardiac arrest. It suggests incorporating resuscitative on-scene thoracotomy into our algorithms for traumatic cardiac arrest. It is a consequence of the very same group’s previously published data on prehospital clamshell thoracotomies in patients with cardiac arrest due to penetrating chest injuries. The algorithm comes out of prehospital thinking but is just as relevant in the ED."