Pratique d'urgence: principes generaux gouvernant la prise en charge hospitaliere du polytraumatise

The management of the trauma victim admitted to the emergency department must be rapid and efficient. Within the first hour, vital functions must be stabilised while a systematic survey of all injuries is carried out. This survey must be as complete as possible, and depends on the patient's status and response to initial resuscitative measures. The need for urgent surgical intervention, therapeutic radiology, or other treatment modalities must be quickly established. This systematic approach, which follows a seven step sequence, can only be carried out by a well-trained team. Because at this time emergency and SMUR are often staffed with general practitioners, and because the trauma centers do not yet exist in Belgium, the application of the treatment protocol presented in this paper is a pre-requisite to quality of care for these patients. It is the only means to end, once and for all, the improvised or intuitive, and often erroneous, approach to these patients.