Trauma Arrest

Since the 1960s, prehospital and trauma systems have worked to improve survival from traumatic injury. While significant strides have been made in improving these outcomes, the one area that has proven to be seemingly unconquerable has been traumatic cardiac arrest (TCA). 

Over the years our tactics have ranged from “do not attempt resuscitation” (based on perceived futility) to “scoop and run.” Neither of these has demonstrated significant benefit to patient outcomes.^1,2 Survival from TCA ranges from 2-8%, with one meta-analysis placing the average survival rate at 6%.¹  In comparison, survival rates from out of hospital cardiac arrest due to medical causes are slightly higher.  Medical arrest survival, where there is documented benefit to early bystander CPR, high quality CPR, and early defibrillation, are notably higher at 7-9%.

This course will present a checklist to prioritize evidence based life-saving procedures in an attempt to improve survival from cardiac arrest.