Unless dealing with injury regularly, few surgeons can attain and sustain the level of skill necessary for decision making in major trauma. This includes both the intellectual decisions and the manual dexterity required to perform all the maneuvers needed for surgical access and control. These
can be particularly challenging, and may be infrequently required, yet rapid access to and control of sites of hemorrhage following trauma can be life-saving surgical intervention. Many situations require specialist trauma expertise, yet often this is simply not on hand within the available time
frame.

This new edition has been updated to incorporate all recent developments. It covers every aspect of surgical trauma care, including:
* The causation of injuries – aids rapid understanding of presented trauma;
* The initial, pre-hospital and emergency department care of the patient – all of which may determine eventual outcome
* The resources required, both physical and intellectual, within the hospital to deal with the specific problems associated with patients with multiple injuries

The Manual of Definitive Surgical Trauma Care is written by the editorial board of the DSTC Course, developed for the International Association for Trauma Surgery and Intensive Care (IATSIC), which is a short course focusing on the life-saving surgical techniques and decision-making required for
surgeons who deal with major surgical trauma on an infrequent basis.