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ATLS: past, present, and future

Joint Editors

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Pete Driscoll
Accident and Emergency Department, Hope Hospital, Eccles Old Road, Salford M6 8HD, UK; peter.driscoll@srht.nhs.uk

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The family tragedy in 1976 gave birth to the trauma legend known as ATLS. In that year a plane piloted by the orthopaedic surgeon J Styner crashed in Nebraska. His wife was killed and four children seriously injured. Unfortunately for Dr Styner he found that the subsequent care received in the local hospital was inferior to what he was able to provide for 10 hours at the scene of the accident. In the ensuing inquiry the need to train clinicians in trauma care became evident.¹

Using the educational structure of the recently developed ACLS programme, the first ATLS course was run in Nebraska in 1978. The following year it was taken up by the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma (ACS COT) and rapidly spread throughout the North, Central, and South America. Today ATLS is taught in over 42 countries and around half a million . . . [Full text of this article]

Relevant Article

Primary survey

Pete Driscoll and Jim Wardrope
Emerg. Med. J. 2005 22: 1. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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				D. A Kilroy Teaching the trauma teachers: an international review of the Advanced Trauma Life Support Instructor Course Emerg. Med. J., July 1, 2007; 24(7): 467 - 470. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				C Luke ATLS: there are alternatives. Emerg. Med. J., February 1, 2006; 23(2): 160 - 160. [Full Text] [PDF]

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