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Intensive Care for Emergency Surgeons: Mass Casualties

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Intensive Care for Emergency Surgeons

Part of the book series: Hot Topics in Acute Care Surgery and Trauma ((HTACST))

Abstract

Disasters overwhelm human and material resources leaving a huge death toll behind. Healthcare systems struggle to manage and respond to major incidents with multiple casualties. Even highly specialized medical units like an ICU should plan far ahead and prepare accordingly in order to perform efficiently during a mass casualty incident. ICU response plan should focus on staff, stuff and space issues. During a major incident, both casualties and resources should be triaged, and level of treatment is adjusted accordingly. The dynamic environment and the stressful conditions of major incidents pose always a challenge. Effective ICU performance can be achieved through vigorous training and interdisciplinary cooperation. Disasters evolve through the years, and an ICU should always be prepared to accommodate terrorist victims, burn patients and CBRN casualties.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. MSc “International Medicine – Health Crisis Management”, Medical School, NKUA, Athens, Greece

    Emmanouil A. Pikoulis, Andreas E. Pikoulis & Athanasios N. Kalogeropoulos

  2. Department of Surgery, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, (NKUA), Athens, Greece

    Emmanouil A. Pikoulis & Andreas E. Pikoulis

  3. Attiko Hospital, Chaidari, Greece

    Emmanouil A. Pikoulis

  4. Orthopaedics and Trauma, HFR Freiburger, Villars-sur-Glâne, Switzerland

    Athanasios N. Kalogeropoulos

Authors
  1. Emmanouil A. Pikoulis
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  2. Andreas E. Pikoulis
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  3. Athanasios N. Kalogeropoulos
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Emmanouil A. Pikoulis .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anesthesia and Intensive Care, Parma University Hospital, Parma, Italy

    Edoardo Picetti

  2. Division of Trauma, Department of Surgery, University of Campinas, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil

    Bruno M. Pereira

  3. Department of Surgery, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Tarek Razek

  4. Department of Surgery/ Division of Trauma, Burns, Critical and Acute Care, Weill Cornell Medicine/ New York-Presbyterian Hospital, New York, USA

    Mayur Narayan

  5. Department of Surgery, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Jeffry L. Kashuk

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Pikoulis, E.A., Pikoulis, A.E., Kalogeropoulos, A.N. (2019). Intensive Care for Emergency Surgeons: Mass Casualties. In: Picetti, E., Pereira, B., Razek, T., Narayan, M., Kashuk, J. (eds) Intensive Care for Emergency Surgeons. Hot Topics in Acute Care Surgery and Trauma. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11830-3_19

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11830-3_19

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-11830-3

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