Pre-Hospital First Aid Strategy for Highway Traffic Accident

Abstract

Road traffic accidents have become an enormous global public health problem. Traffic accident injuries on highways can cause severe trauma. The death rate of the injured is very high within 30[Formula: see text]min after injury. According to statistics, about 75–95% of the people with fatal traffic injuries died before being taken to the hospital. If these casualties can be effectively treated, about 1/3 can be prevented from death. Therefore, pre-hospital first aid plays a very important role in the treatment of major traffic accident injuries. Paying attention to the pre-hospital emergency treatment is crucial to ensure the success of a major accident damage, and to improve treatment results and reduce mortality and morbidity. A good relationship between the doctor and ambulance officers is essential for efficient team work. All emergency surgical procedures in the case of severely injured patients are generally performed in accordance with the Damage Control Orthopedics (DCO) principle. In order to improve the pre-hospital rapid response and first aid capabilities, the government should establish independent trauma disciplines and trauma specialist training systems, and must build the regional trauma care system as well as the standards for graded treatment, thus establishing a multi-disciplinary team (MDT) for severe trauma. In this way, we can reduce the mortality and disability risks of severe trauma, improve the quality of patients’ life and save more lives.