About Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS)
Injured patients present a wide range of complex problems. The Advanced Trauma Life Support® (ATLS®) Course presents a concise approach to assessing and managing multiply injured patients. The course presents physicians and advanced practice providers with knowledge and techniques that are comprehensive and easily adapted to fit their needs. The skills described in the manual represent one safe way to perform each techniqueand the American College of Surgeons (ACS) recognizes that there are other acceptable approaches. Howeverthe knowledge and skills taught in the course are easily adapted to all venues for the care of patients.
The ACS and its Committee on Trauma (COT) have developed the ATLS Course for physicians and advanced practice providers. This program provides systemic and concise training for the early care of trauma patients. The ATLS Course provides participants with a safereliable method for immediate management of the injured patient and the basic knowledge necessary to:
- Treat the greatest threat to life first. A lack of a definitive diagnosis should not delay the application of indicated treatment. A detailed history is not essential to begin the evaluation of a patient with acute injuries.
- Employ the xABCDE algorithm as a universal language for the primary survey.
For physicians and advanced practice providers who infrequently treat traumathe ATLS Course provides an easy-to-remember method for evaluating and treating the victim of a traumatic event. For physicians and advanced practice providers who treat traumatic disease on a frequent basisthe ATLS Course provides a scaffold for evaluationtreatmenteducationand quality assurance. In shortATLS is a measurablereproducibleand comprehensive system of trauma care.
History
The Beginning
In February 1976a tragedy occurred that changed the first hour of trauma care for injured patients in the United States and in much of the rest of the world. Dr. Jim Styneran orthopaedic surgeoncrashed his small plane into a cornfield in rural Nebraska. Dr. Styner sustained serious injuriesthree of his children sustained critical injuriesand one child sustained minor injuries. His wife was killed instantly. The care that he and his family subsequently received was inadequate by the day’s standards. The surgeonrecognizing how inadequate their treatment wasstated"When I can provide better care in the field with limited resources than what my children and I received at the primary care facilitythere is something wrong with the systemand the system has to be changed."
Program Development
A new approach to the provision of care for individuals suffering majorlife-threatening injury premiered in 1978the year of the first ATLS Course. In January 1980the American College of Surgeons introduced the ATLS Course in the U.S. and abroad. Canada joined the ATLS program the following year. In 1986several countries in Latin America joined the ACS Committee on Trauma and introduced the ATLS program in their region. NowATLS is available in more than 80 countries. Under the auspices of the ACS Military Committee on Traumathe program has been conducted for U.S. military doctors in the United States and around the world.
For more than a quarter centurythe American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma has taught the ATLS Course to over 1 million doctors in more than 80 countries. ATLS has become the foundation of care for injured patients by teaching a common language and a common approach. The 11th edition builds upon decades of best-practice developmentswith contributions from more than 250 surgeons from multiple disciplines. The result is an ATLS Course that represents the highest level of trauma care for the global community.