Outcomes of traumatic hemorrhagic shock and the epidemiology of preventable death from injury

Abstract

The majority of potentially preventable deaths after trauma are related to hemorrhage and occur early after injury, with the largest number of deaths occurring before hospital arrival. Approximately one-fourth of trauma deaths may be potentially preventable through early medical and surgical interventions. Interventions dedicated to bleeding control and hemostatic resuscitation have demonstrated merit in decreasing hemorrhagic injury mortality. Advancing these novel strategies to the casualty in the prehospital phase of care, particularly in tactical or austere environments, may prove beneficial for hemorrhage mitigation to temporize the window of survival to definitive care. Future studies of resuscitation and survival after traumatic injury must include analysis of prehospital deaths to fully understand the outcomes of early interventions.