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Prehospital Care Algorithm for Blast Injuries due to Bombing Incidents

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 June 2012

G. Bobby Kapur ,
M. Tyson Pillow  and
Ira Nemeth
G. Bobby Kapur*
Affiliation:
Section of Emergency Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
M. Tyson Pillow
Affiliation:
Section of Emergency Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
Ira Nemeth
Affiliation:
Section of Emergency Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
*
Section of Emergency Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, 1504 Taub Loop, 1EC-61002, Houston, Texas 77030, USA E-mail: kapur@bcm.edu
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Abstract

Terrorist bombings continue to remain a risk for local jurisdictions, and retrospective data from the United States show that bombings occur in residential and business areas due to interpersonal violence without political motives. In the event of a mass-casualty bombing incident, prehospital care providers will have the responsibility for identifying and managing blast injuries unique to bombing victims. In a large-scale event, emergency medical services personnel should be required to provide prolonged medical care in the prehospital setting, and they will be able to deliver improved care with a better understanding of blast injuries and a concise algorithm for managing them. Blast injuries are categorized as primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary, and these injuries are related to the mechanism of injury from the blast event. After an initial evaluation, the emergency healthcare provider should consider following a universal algorithm to identify and treat blast injuries within these categories to prevent further morbidity or mortality in the prehospital setting.

Keywords

blast injuriesexplosionsmass-casualty incidentterrorism
Type
Theoretical Discussion
Information
Prehospital and Disaster Medicine , Volume 25 , Issue 6 , December 2010 , pp. 595 - 600
Copyright
Copyright © World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine 2010

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