UAE emergency departments adopt Damage Control Resuscitation to deal with patients with severe trauma

Emergency departments (ED) and trauma centres are now being established and expanded in public hospitals throughout the UAE. ‘Damage control’ is a term used by surgeons who fight to save the lives of patients bought into the ED. According to the American College of Surgeons (ACS), the general concept behind damage control resuscitation and surgery is to control of life-threatening bleeding and contamination which must be terminated as soon as possible in order for the patient to undergo correction of physiologic abnormalities due to haemorrhagic shock or sepsis. Damage control mainly applies to general surgery, orthopaedics, and neurosurgery.

Dr Yasser Zaghloul, Consultant Anaesthetist, Sheikh Khalifa Medical City, Abu Dhabi, UAE is set to discuss the importance of damage control resuscitation in the EDs across the region at the launch of the Emergency Medicine Exhibition & Congress from 2-4 Jun 2014 at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre.  The event is organised by Informa Life Sciences Exhibitions and runs alongside the already established Hospital Build & Infrastructure Middle East Exhibition & Congress.

According to Dr Zaghloul, “Here at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City, we treat approximately 40-50 cases of damage control resuscitation annually. Patients with severe poly-trauma usually arrive at our ED with significant injuries and trauma. Management of this group of patients is completely different than patients who come to see us for elective or semi-elective surgery. Patients usually have significant bleeding, coagulopathy and haemorrhagic shock.”

The benefits of damage control resuscitation include decreased mortality in patients and immediate post-operative complications.

“The main objectives of damage control resuscitation are to be able to control the airway and breathing, intravenous fluids, blood and blood products infusion, in addition to performing initial emergency surgery to gain control over the source of bleeding and or contamination,” continues Dr Zaghloul.

“Furthermore, the patient then goes on to the intensive care unit (ICU) for further advanced management of their condition which include correction of blood clotting disorders, treatment of increased acidity in the blood and normalisation of body temperature. Other organ-target therapies are also implemented, for instance, prevention and treatment of factors which may cause secondary brain injury. After stabilisation, patients return to the operating room for definitive surgical repair such as the closure of laparotomy or fixation of bone fractures “concludes Dr Zaghloul.