All Patients with Truncal Gunshot Wounds Deserve Trauma Team Activation

Abstract

Patients with GSWT often require high-level care, even when physiologic TTA criteria are absent on admission. Gunshot wound to the trunk should be an independent criterion for TTA.

Triage vital signs do not correlate with serum lactate or base deficit, and are less predictive of operative intervention in penetrating trauma patients: a prospective cohort study

“…Traditional criteria for the activation of trauma teams for penetrating trauma have focused on triage vital signs 1. Haemorrhage is responsible for about 30%–40% of mortality in trauma patients 2.…”

Let the Surgeon Sleep: Trauma Team Activation for Severe Hypotension

“…The amount of penetrating trauma in the United States has fortunately diminished and with it has diminished the need for the general surgeon to take the patient to the OR. 16 Rather the focus of operative trauma has increased for the orthopedic and neurosurgeons and to some degree the maxillofacial surgeons. This change provides an opportunity to further refine the trauma system by incorporating the ED as an integral member and to entrust to those team members the initial management of some traumatic injuries.…”

Gun culture—recent trends in epidemiology and management in the UK

“…Penetrating trauma to the trunk may initially be associated with deceptively normal vital signs despite grave injury (Sava et al, 2002). Sava et al (2002) working in a Level 1 trauma center in California looked at a series of over 4198 patients who had received gun shot wounds to the trunk. They observed that 6% of these did not achieve traditional trauma team activation criteria.…”