Trauma systems

Abstract

Serious trauma continues to be the main cause of death in young people in our environment and traffic accidents continue to be the fundamental cause. According to data from the DGT in 2016, there were 1,160 fatalities with 5,067 wounded that required hospitalization.

The enormous economic and social burden that trauma exerts throughout the world has led to significant advances in the last 45 years, in the knowledge of pathophysiology, in prehospital and hospital management, in imaging techniques, in surgery and in intensive care, in the infrastructure and organization necessary to attend to these patients. However, the efficacy of treatment may be reduced if the necessary interventions are not readily available or there is not good coordination between the elements involved in patient care.

For some authors, the trauma system is the “gold standard” system for providing adequate healthcare to the traumatic patient. In our environment, the organization of care for severe trauma is at a lower level than care for other time-dependent pathologies, such as acute ischemic stroke or acute coronary syndrome.

In this review, divided into two parts, it is intended to define what a trauma system is, its components, highlight the importance, the situation and development at the international and national level and the necessary requirements for its implementation.