Damage Control Resuscitation: Directly Addressing the Early Coagulopathy of Trauma

Rapid progress in trauma care occurs when the results of translational research are promptly integrated into clinical practice. Experience with a high volume of severely injured casualties expedites the process. Historically, these conditions have converged during times of conflict, improving the care of combat casualties and subsequently that of civilian trauma patients. In the most severely injured casualties, we know that when the lethal triad of hypothermia, acidosis, and coagulopathy are present, death is imminent. Current teaching is to avoid reaching these conditions by using damage control surgery. However, conventional resuscitation practice for damage control focuses on rapid reversal of acidosis and prevention of hypothermia, and surgical techniques focus on controlling hemorrhage and contamination. Direct treatment of coagulopathy has been relatively neglected, viewed as a byproduct of resuscitation, hemodilution, and hypothermia, and delayed by blood banking logistics. Damage control resuscitation addresses the entire lethal triad immediately upon admission to a combat hospital. By demonstrating that in the severely injured the coagulopathy of trauma is present at admission, recent studies have brought back to light the importance of treating this disorder at an earlier stage. Reports of lactated Ringer s solution and normal saline increasing reperfusion injury and leukocyte adhesion lead one to conclude that the standard crystalloid based resuscitation guidelines in pre hospital trauma life support (PHTLS) and advanced trauma life support (ATLS) may worsen the presenting acidosis and coagulopathy in severely injured trauma patients, and possibly increase ARDS, SIRS, and MOF. The safety of withholding PRBCs in hemodynamically stable patients has been demonstrated,18 and the risks associated with blood transfusion are well described. Pub. in the Journal of Trauma Injury, Infection, and Critical Care, v62, p307-310, 2007.