REBOA: The Next Stop on the Road to Trauma Management?

The management of major trauma has a long history of failures found along a road of good intention. From Military Anti-Shock Trousers (MAST) to aggressive crystalloid administration, we’ve seen management strategies come and go over the years, after the reality of the practice didn’t measure up to the expectation of improved outcomes. Today, we have several novel concepts being implemented across the world to try to move the needle for trauma resuscitation. Tranexamic acid (TXA), blood product administration, and simple (finger) thoracostomy are a few of the advances that seem to be gaining interest in EMS. Although these developments are still “state of the art” practice in EMS, many are wondering what the next stop is on the road to trauma management. The next stop may be resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta (REBOA) for hemorrhagic shock with uncontrolled abdominal, pelvic, or lower extremity bleeding. What Is REBOA?
Source: JEMS Patient Care - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Trauma Columns Source Type: news