2.1. Introduction
Trauma keeps the second place in statistics of lethality and the third place among all causes of disability to work. Over 50% of all injuries take place out-of-job, nearly 40% — in traffic accidents, and about 5% — on the working cite. Giving first aid on the spot of an accident is an essential link to beneficial outcome of traumatic injuries treatment. Only in the first 30 minutes after wounding, fracture or other injury, skillfully provided first aid ensures the victim’s life retention, fast healing, escaping many possible adverse events and the earliest post-traumatic reintegration in society. First aid becomes particularly important for injuries caused by large-scale disasters, when a number of the victims much exceeds the medical personnel capacity. One of the major life-threatening complications is bleeding. That is why the initial step of first aid giving suggests the most urgent bleeding control. The victims with trauma aggravated by severe bleeding or suffocation keep the leading position in the matters of first aid priority. The scope and algorithm of first aid for different injuries are addressed in more detail in the following chapter.
Trauma — is the destruction of the tissue and organs’ functions integrity caused by external factors of impact (mechanical, thermal, chemical, electric, radioactive). The most frequent injuries are wounds, maims, dislocations, fractures, burns, frostbites, electric injury.
The trauma may be open i.e. wound, or closed — without disintegration of the skin surfaces (dislocations, maims, sprains, closed fractures, closed trauma with visceral injury etc.).