The golden hour and prehospital trauma care

Pre-hospital and hospital traumatic deaths in the former homeland of Transkei, South Africa

“…Only 6% of these patients died as a result of aspiration, and 30% were considered unsalvageable by peer review. 24 The mortality rate increased in direct proportion to increase in transportation time and injury severity score. 25 In general, the most frequent causes of death were traumatic shock (32.6%), followed by the injuries of the brain and spinal cord (30.5%).…”

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

“…A subsequent prospective study confirmed the unexpected tendency of the civilian car drivers to drive faster to the hospital in those cases where the injury severity score was later judged to be higher. The effectiveness of rapid delivery merely emphasizes the importance of the Golden Hour in the trauma situation (Cornwell et al, 2000;McNichol, 1994). These and other studies suggested that for near-fatal gun shot wounds, early arrival in a trauma unit is more advantageous than early resuscitation in the field (Pepe et al, 1987).…”

Mortality Distribution in a Trauma System: From Data to Health Policy Recommendations

“…These two concepts are in part responsible for the genesis of all the modern emergency systems that deal with trauma patients all over the world [9][10][11][12]. However, the trimodal distribution of trauma deaths is being increasingly challenged both by European and American authors [13][14][15].…”