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Prehospital Management of Earthquake Casualties Buried Under Rubble

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 June 2012

Itamar Ashkenazi ,
Boris Isakovich ,
Yoram Kluger ,
Ricardo Alfici ,
Boris Kessel  and
Ori S. Better
Itamar Ashkenazi*
Affiliation:
Surgery B/Trauma Unit, Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, Hadera, Israel
Boris Isakovich
Affiliation:
Intensive Care Unit, Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, Hadera, Israel
Yoram Kluger
Affiliation:
Surgery B, Rambam Medical Center, Haifa, Israel
Ricardo Alfici
Affiliation:
Surgery B/Trauma Unit, Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, Hadera, Israel
Boris Kessel
Affiliation:
Surgery B/Trauma Unit, Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, Hadera, Israel
Ori S. Better
Affiliation:
Supported by the Michael and Helen Schaffer Fund for research in Military Medicine
*
Department of Surgery B, Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, POB 169, Hadera 38100, Israel E-mail: i_ashkenazi@yahoo.com or trauma@hillel-yaffe.health.gov.il
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Abstract

Earthquakes continue to exact a heavy toll on life, injury, and loss of property. Survival of casualties extricated from under the rubble depends upon early medical interventions by emergency teams on site. The objective of this paper is to review the pertinent literature and to analyze the information as a practical guideline for the medical management of casualties accidentally buried alive.

Keywords

crush injuryearthquake casualtiessearch and rescuetreatment guidelines
Type
Comprehensive Review
Information
Prehospital and Disaster Medicine , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , April 2005 , pp. 122 - 133
Copyright
Copyright © World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine 2005

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