Advanced Trauma Life Support

"Advanced Trauma Life Support" is a training programin acute management of traumacases, developed in 1976by the American College of Surgeons. The training program has been adopted worldwide in over 30 countries worldwide. The goal of the program is to teach a simplified and standardised approach to trauma patients.

ATLS has its origins in the United Statesin 1976, when an orthopaedic surgeon Dr James K. Styner, piloting a light aircraft, crashed his plane into a field in Nebraska. His wife was killed instantly and three of his four children received critical injuries. He carried out initial triage to his children at the crash site. Dr Styner had to flagdown a car to transport him to the nearest hospital he found it closed. Even once the hospital was opened and a doctor called in, he found the emergency care provided at the small regional hospital where they were treated was inadequate and inappropriate.

Upon returning to work, he set about developing a system for saving lives in medical trauma sitations. Jim Styner and his colleague Paul 'Skip' Collicott, with assistance from Advanced Cardiac Life Support personnel and the Lincoln Medical Education Foundation, produced the initial ATLS course. In 1980 the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma adopted ATLS and began US and International dissemination of the course.

Today ATLS is used throughout the world, it has saved many lives.

See also

• Trauma team

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It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced+Trauma+Life+Support Wikipedia article Advanced Trauma Life Support.