Important learning points arising from the focused issue dedicated to the Terror and Disaster Surgical Care (TDSC®) course on mass casualty incident management

• Published in: European journal of trauma and emergency surgery (Munich : 2007) Vol. 48; no. 5; pp. 3593 - 3597
• Main Authors: Ashkenazi, Itamar, Örtenwall, Per, Turégano Fuentes, Fernando
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01-10-2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Critical Care Medicine; Disaster medicine; Disasters; Emergency medical care; Emergency Medicine; Emergency preparedness; Intensive; Mass casualty incidents; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Review Article; Sports Medicine; Surgery; Surgical Orthopedics; Terrorism; Traumatic Surgery; Terrrorism; Mass casualty incident; Blast; TDSC
• ISSN: 1863-9933; 1863-9941
• DOI: 10.1007/s00068-021-01600-8

The Terror and Disaster Surgical Care (TDSC®) course on mass casualty incident management was formulated in Germany by military medical personnel, who have been deployed to conflict areas, but also work in hospitals open for the lay public. In this manuscript we discuss different concepts and ideas taught in this course as these are described in a focused issue recently published in the
European Journal of Trauma and Emergency Surgery
. We provide reinforcement for some of the ideas conveyed. We provide alternative views for others. Injuries following explosions are different from blunt and penetrating trauma and at times demand a different approach. There are probably several ways to manage a mass casualty incident depending on the setup of the organization. An open discussion on the topics presented in the manuscripts included in the focused issue on military and disaster surgery should enrich everyone.