Trauma and Critical Care

Abstract

The 12-month period from November 1996 to October 1997 was an exciting and vibrant one for scientific investigation in the area of trauma and critical care. The published peer-reviewed studies and the presentations at the 57th Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma and the 83rd Annual Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons illustrated the great variety of topics encompassed by the fields of trauma surgery and surgical critical care. This review covers reports of basic and clinical investigations in the following areas: 1) injury prevention; 2) safe, effective diagnosis and optimal management of specific traumatic injuries; 3) issues in resuscitation and the ongoing search for early, clinically applicable signs of hypoperfusion; 4) the controversy over use of the pulmonary artery catheter in critically ill patients; and 5) the prevention and treatment of common problems seen in the surgical intensive care unit.