Barker SJ

Language: English
References: 0
Page: 70-75
PDF size: 63.87 Kb.

Text Extraction

INTRODUCTION

More than 100,000 deaths occur each year in the U.S. as a direct result of trauma. Trauma is the leading overall cause of death in the age group from birth to 30 years. Anesthesia for trauma is perhaps the highest challenge of our specialty, as we must treat critically ill patients whose history, injuries, and status are not well known to us. The surgical diagnosis is usually unknown at the time of incision, as is the nature of the procedure being undertaken. We often do not have the time to place the desired invasive monitors, and seldom have time to perform complete volume resuscitation. Nevertheless, we must anesthetize, paralyze, monitor, and resuscitate these patients while our surgical colleagues search for occult bleeding sources and remove various viscera.