TY - JOUR T1 - Prehospital paediatric emergency care: paediatric triage JF - Emergency Medicine Journal JO - Emerg Med J SP - 767 LP - 768 DO - 10.1136/emj.2008.061556 VL - 26 IS - 11 AU - J M Sandell AU - I K Maconochie AU - F Jewkes Y1 - 2009/11/01 UR - http://emj.bmj.com/content/26/11/767.abstract N2 - The practice of triage was conceived during the Napoleonic wars, with the aim of salvaging those soldiers whose injuries were readily treatable, returning them to the battlefield at the earliest opportunity. Literally, the word triage means “to sieve” or “to sort” (French trier), and those earlier battlefield principles have been refined and expanded to now encompass trauma and medical emergencies, with triage practiced in prehospital and hospital settings. To address the anatomical, physiological and developmental differences encountered when dealing with children, specific paediatric triage systems have also been developed, and this article discusses their merits. ER -