Emergency medicine is, to a great extent, based on the progress made in clinical anesthesiology and resuscitation. It is only natural for these clinically approved measures, which are routinely used for surgery and anesthesia in recovery rooms and intensive care stations, to be applied outside the hospital, where first aid is required, be this at the scene of an accident or at bedside.

An emergency exists when “immediate danger to life or danger of serious lasting injury is present, cannot be excluded or has to be expected.” This is particularly the case with disturbances of the vital functions, respiration and circulation in polytraumatized patients, for example, with injuries of body cavities, head and cervical spine, hemorrhagic shock, coma or somnolence; or in patients with acute heart insufficiency.