J.Jpn. Surg. Soc.. 125(3): 199-206, 2024

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Feature topic

CURRENT AND FUTURE ROLES OF ACUTE CARE SURGEONS IN PREHOSPITAL EMERGENCY MEDICINE

Acute care surgery (ACS), which emerged as a new surgical specialty in the USA, is becoming increasingly important in Japan and providing new opportunities for board-certified surgeons. In addition to activities within hospitals, ACS is expanding its scope of activities into the field of prehospital care to provide highly specialized medical care for acute care patients. In prehospital care, early medical intervention using a medical helicopter or physician’s vehicle plays an important role, and prehospital involvement of acute care surgeons allows for appropriate prehospital initiation of damage control strategies and prompt, accurate resuscitative surgery, including resuscitative thoracotomy, to prevent cardiac arrest. This permits seamless implementation of a series of strategies leading to in-hospital damage control surgery. In addition, acute care surgeons, together with emergency physicians, can perform command and control, triage, and transport in prehospital situations for multiple cases, special cases, and cases with multiple injuries and illnesses, which is expected to further improve the lifesaving rate. Through these activities, acute care surgeons are able to respond to contingencies.

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