Plan for plastic surgeons to participate in trauma teams at regional trauma and emergency centers
10.5124/jkma.2018.61.12.710
- Author:
Nam Kyu LIM
1
;
Dong Hee KANG
Author Information
1. Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Dankook University Hospital, Cheonan, Korea. dhkcool@daum.net
- Publication Type:Original Article
- Keywords:
Trauma centers;
Emergency treatment;
Surgery, plastic
- MeSH:
Anesthesiology;
Emergencies;
Emergency Medicine;
Emergency Treatment;
Head;
Humans;
Jurisprudence;
Neck;
Neurosurgery;
Orthopedics;
Plastics;
Surgeons;
Surgery, Plastic;
Trauma Centers
- From:Journal of the Korean Medical Association
2018;61(12):710-714
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:Korean
-
Abstract:
A law revised in May 2012 provided support to regional and emergency centers for reducing the risk of preventable deaths. In particular, regional trauma centers have been established throughout the nation, with the goal of ensuring that any trauma patient can reach a trauma center within an hour. As a multidisciplinary approach is particularly important in treating severe trauma patients, activation teams are currently organized at each center to perform multiple simultaneous treatments. Under the present system, only 7 departments can participate in these trauma teams; emergency medicine, cardiothoracic surgery, general surgery, orthopedic surgery, neurosurgery, radiology, and anesthesiology. Plastic surgeons also play an essential role in treating trauma patients, and in fact currently treat many such cases. Especially in reconstruction procedures in patients with head and neck trauma and wide tissue defects, plastic surgeons possess unique expertise. However, since plastic surgeons are excluded from the trauma response teams due to institutional limitations, we describe the role and necessity of plastic surgery for trauma and emergency patients, and urge that the system be improved.
