ATLS
Despite the global acceptance that the ATLS management principles appear to represent a gold standard in trauma management, there are few data that suggest ATLS training has meaningfully reduced trauma-related morbidity and mortality in the developed world - M. D. Wiles
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ATLS: Archaic Trauma Life Support?
There is no doubt that the ATLS course principles added some much needed structure to the initial management of multiply injured patients. Before the well-known ‘ABCDE’ stepwise approach, trauma patients had been managed similarly to general medical patients, with a focus on history and examination before any intervention. This was particularly important in trauma management before the advent of major trauma centres (MTCs), with immediate management provided in multiple different regional hospitals.
Resources
Advanced Life Support vs. Basic Life Support for Patients With Trauma in Prehospital Settings: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
In prehospital settings, the present study showed no advantages of ALS on the outcomes in patients with trauma compared to BLS.
Advanced training in trauma life support for hospital staff
There is no evidence from controlled trials that ATLS or similar programs impact the outcome for victims of injury, although there is some evidence that educational initiatives improve knowledge of hospital staff of available emergency interventions. Furthermore, there is no evidence that trauma management systems that incorporate ATLS training impact positively on outcome. Future research should concentrate on the evaluation of trauma systems incorporating ATLS, both within hospitals and at the health system level, by using more rigorous research designs.
Advanced trauma life support training: How useful it is?
It is obvious that it is almost impossible to perform randomized controlled trials to study the effect of ATLS courses on trauma mortality simply because all conditions cannot be standardized. Studying factors predicting trauma mortality is a very complex issue. There are multiple confounders and logistics that prevent such experimental design. Accordingly, trauma mortality does not depend solely on ATLS training but on other important factors, like presence of well-developed trauma systems with advanced pre-hospital care.
The Advanced Trauma Life Support course: a history of its development and review of related literature
The ATLS course was established after a tragic plane crash in 1976, which devastated an entire family. The pilot, an orthopaedic surgeon named James Styner, was seriously injured while his wife was killed and three of his children sustained critical injuries. He was horrified at the treatment his family received at a local hospital in rural Nebraska and decided that the established system for managing the severely injured was wrong.
ATLS: Archaic Trauma Life Support?
Despite the global acceptance that the ATLS management principles appear to represent a gold standard in trauma management, there are few data that suggest ATLS training has meaningfully reduced trauma-related morbidity and mortality in the developed world.
myATLS
Your personal trauma toolbox... Videos, algorithms, calculators, and formulas that put life-saving information at your fingertips.
ATLS
ATLS was developed by the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Committee on Trauma (COT) and was first introduced in the US and abroad in 1980.
International Trauma Life Support
International Trauma Life Support (ITLS) is a global not-for-profit organization dedicated to preventing death and disability from trauma through education and emergency trauma care. Founded in 1985 as Basic Trauma Life Support International, ITLS adopted its new name in 2005 to better reflect its global role and impact.
TraumaMan
The TraumaMan® System is an anatomically correct human body form that allows students to practice a variety of advanced surgical procedures. Its flexible design and replaceable tissues give each student a "first cut" experience and make it easy to incorporate into team trauma training.
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