Trauma
EM Clerkship
Zack Olson, MD ; Mike Estephan, MD ; Maddie Watts, MD
4.9 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 6 June 2016
⏱️ 9 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Airway/C-spine. Breathing. Circulation. Disability. Exposure. Secondary Survey.
Airway and C-Spine
* General airway principles* “If they can’t speak, they can’t control their airway”* “If GCS is <8, intubate”* In the real world, it’s a clinical judgement call* General c-spine principles* Clear c-spine with NEXUS/Canadian rules* Otherwise stabilize spine and place in cervical collar
Breathing
* If patient has tachypnea, hypoxemia, or respiratory distress* Give O2* Examine for tension pneumothorax* Deviated trachea* Asymmetric breath sounds* If concerned perform needle decompression* THEN* Tube thoracostomy
Circulation
* If patient has tachycardia, hypotension, or obvious blood loss* Stop the bleed* Emergent transfusion* Consider early OR if unstable* In the real world, CT is frequently obtained pre-op regardless of stability
Disability
* Pupils* GCS* If concerned for head injury* Obtain CT head without contrast
Exposure
* Fully undress the patient* Warm blankets
Secondary Survey
* Visualize everything* Palpate everything* Bedside chest/pelvic x-ray and FAST scan
Common Labs
* Type and screen* CBC* Electrolytes* Urinalysis* EKG* Blood alcohol level* Lactic acid (if concerned for shock)
Common Imaging
* CT head without contrast* CT maxillofacial without contrast* CT cervical spine without contrast* CTA neck* CT abdomen/pelvis WITH contrast* Retrograde urethrogram* Additional x-rays
Common Treatments
* Blood products* Tetanus immunization* Analgesics
Additional Reading
* Advanced Trauma Life Support (Wikipedia)* Round 5 – Geriatric Fall (EM Clerkship)
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello, med students. This episode has been sponsored by Freed AI. Do you dread the thought of |
| 0:07.1 | endless charting once you become a doctor? Do you think that doctors should be spending more |
| 0:11.9 | time with our patients and less time mindlessly writing notes? Freed AI is the product for you. It is a |
| 0:20.4 | secure, hippocompliant scribe that anybody can use. |
| 0:24.7 | Focus your energy on what matters, providing good patient care. |
| 0:29.5 | Use coupon code EM50 to save 50% the first month you try it, |
| 0:34.1 | and you can cancel at any time if you decide it's not right for you. |
| 0:37.7 | You can learn more at www.gitfreed.a.i. |
| 0:45.1 | Hello, med students. My name is Zach Olson. Thank you so much for downloading this |
| 0:50.2 | episode of the EM Clerkship Podcast. Before we get started, I want to give a special shout |
| 0:56.7 | out to Michelle in Virginia. This topic was specifically requested by her today. So I really |
| 1:02.8 | appreciate you reaching out, Michelle. This is a great idea. I hope you enjoy. Now everybody, |
| 1:07.9 | I want you to close your eyes and imagine. In front of you is an 18-year-old male. |
| 1:13.8 | He's being wheeled in by EMS. He's on a backboard. He's wearing a collar. He's got some dried |
| 1:19.7 | blood on his face and his limbs. His t-shirt is all torn up. EMS states that he is a construction |
| 1:25.9 | worker and that he fell from the second floor onto a pile of debris from their company's building renovation. |
| 1:33.3 | So I want you to pause here. What do you do? |
| 1:38.3 | Today, I'm going to give you the approach to trauma. |
| 1:45.0 | Now this talk is actually formally outlined in a program called ATLS, Advanced Trauma Life Support. |
| 1:53.0 | And for those of you who have not done any trauma rotations, the big theme with ATLS is that you do something called a primary survey and then you do something called a |
| 2:02.7 | secondary survey. The primary survey is basically represented by this mnemonic, A, B, C, D, E. And then when |
| 2:11.2 | you're done with the primary survey, you move on to the secondary survey, where you do a head-to-toe |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Zack Olson, MD ; Mike Estephan, MD ; Maddie Watts, MD, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Zack Olson, MD ; Mike Estephan, MD ; Maddie Watts, MD and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.