Trauma Surgery
By utilizing both operative and non-operative management to treat traumatic injuries, typically in an acute setting it normally focuses on the abdominal area along with any given Emergency field they may be required to serve upon. Initial resuscitation and stabilization and later evaluation and management of the patient; are done by Trauma team. . The broad scope enables Trauma surgery to address most injuries to the neck, chest, abdomen, and extremities; treating most of the musculoskeletal trauma.
Injuries to the central nervous system are generally treated by neurosurgeons; skeletal injuries are treated by trauma orthopedic surgeons; facial injuries are often treated by maxillofacial surgeons; abdominal injuries treated by General Surgeons.
Other specialists, such as cardiothoracic surgeons, plastic surgeons, vascular surgeons, and interventional radiologists are also involved in treating trauma patients.
Trauma Surgery is familiar with a large variety of general surgical, thoracic, and vascular procedures to be able to make complex decisions, often with little time and incomplete information. Most patients presenting to emergency centers have multiple injuries involving different organ systems, and so the care of such patients often requires a significant number of diagnostic studies and operative procedures. Trauma Surgery is responsible for prioritizing such procedures and for designing the overall treatment plan.
This process starts as soon as the patient arrives in the emergency department and continues to the operating room, intensive care unit, and hospital floor.
In most settings, patients are evaluated according to a set of predetermined protocols (triage) designed to detect and treat life-threatening conditions as soon as possible. After such conditions have been addressed (or ruled out), non-life-threatening injuries are addressed.