Anaesthesia | Trauma | Management of life-threatening thoracic injury

Management of life-threatening thoracic injury
Session Overview
Description
Assessment and treatment of life-threatening thoracic injuries.

Learning Objectives
By the end of this session you will be able to:

• Describe the principles of assessment and treatment of life-threatening thoracic injuries in the trauma patient
• Assess and treat injuries detected in the primary survey
• Assess and treat injuries detected in the secondary survey

Prerequisites
Before commencing this session you should complete:

• Module 03/Trauma/Primary and secondary survey/The primary survey (001-0356)
• Module 03/Trauma/Primary and secondary survey/The secondary survey (001-0357)

Most thoracic injuries are treated with relatively simple, but time-critical, interventions – few need surgery.

The injuries are divided into those that should be detected during the primary survey (mainly by clinical examination) and those detected during the secondary survey, (often requiring additional investigations).