Traumatic injury is a term which refers to physical injuries with sudden onset and severity which require immediate medical attention.
The bodily insult may cause systemic shock called “shock trauma”, and may require immediate resuscitation and medical interventions to save life and limb. Traumatic injuries are caused by a wide variety of blunt, penetrating and burn mechanisms. These causes include motor vehicle collisions, slip-and-falls, trip-and-falls, a multitude of other physical injuries which can occur due to an accident.
Many accidents resulting in traumatic injury can be treated appropriately in hospital emergency departments. More severe and multiple traumatic injuries may be triaged even before the victim arrives at the hospital by the emergency-response ambulance or helicopter flight teams as a Trauma Alert. A Level One Trauma Alert may be determined based upon a rapid physical assessment of the victim’s immediate medical needs.
Types of Traumatic Injuries
Some common type of traumatic injuries include, but are not limited to:
- Traumatic brain injury
- Spinal cord injury
- Spine fractures
- Amputation – traumatic
- Facial trauma
- Acoustic trauma
- Crush injury
- Concussion
- Broken bone
- Jaw – Broken or dislocated
- Skull fracture
- Cuts and puncture wounds
- Collapsed lung
- Myocardial contusion
- Burns
- Electrical injury
- Hypovolemic shock
- Subarachnoid hemorrhage
- Subdural hematoma
