Triage or sorting means recognition and selection of the injured for treatment and transport. It is a very important and difficult task and has the aim of saving as many lives as possible, ensuring the best possible treatment, leading to the best possible recovery. Triage requires judgment, courage to assume responsibility and determination to act rapidly. The examination of a patient to assess his priority includes his vital functions, his specific injuries and his environment. Triage leads to the following priorities:

(1) immediate, compulsory treatment;

(2) early treatment, within hours;

(3) delayed treatments; and

(4) slightly injured and hopeless cases.

Although triage is primarily a physician's job, trained paramedical personnel or firstaiders may be the first to arrive at the scene and should to able to recognize and treat casualties requiring immediate care on the spot.

The first physician at the disaster site may not be well qualified in emergency medicine, and indeed may have little or no experience in handling casualties. He may be a passenger involved in the emergency landing of an airplane. Let us therefore examine three possible situations: