| Korean Disaster Surgical Response Team:A Novel Challenge in Disaster |
| 대한 외과재난대응팀: 재난 대응 의료 지원의 새로운 도전 |
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김남렬 |
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고려대학교 의과대학 외과학교실 |
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Received: 13 April 2014 • Revised: 14 April 2014 • Accepted: 15 April 2014 |
| Abstract |
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Continuing industrial development comes with increased threat of more complex disasters. This requires local and national standardized disaster preparedness and novel concepts built with multidisciplinary expertise above older regulatory standards. One of these efforts, the Korean Disaster Surgical Response Team is made up of trauma surgeons. The team began to work in 2013 as medical professionals who are rapid deployable to mass casualty incident fields. This team suggested three novel approaches to the complex nature of modern disasters requiring sophisticated expertise. The first is cross-dispatch, response from the unaffected areas to prevent a shortage of medical resource in the immediate area of the disaster field. Second is dispatching the emergency surgical team to the site of disaster and on-site collaboration with the search and rescue teams. The surgical team on site can provide several emergent medical procedures like surgical airway, bleeder control, thoracotomy and even amputations for extrication from collapsed structures. The third approach focuses on the initial stabilization of the victims by increasing surgical expertise in the field. The authors believe these new approaches increase the chances of survival on-site, giving more time to reach definitive treatment and increase long-term survival. However, good intentions and clinical expertise alone will not suffice to achieve these outcomes. These novel approaches to meet the increasing complexity of current disasters are being developed with governmental and nongovernmental support and concurrent training of medical professionals. (J Acute Care Surg 2014;4:7-12) |
| Key Words:
Disaster response teams, Mass casualty incidents, Field hospital, Korean Disaster Surgical Response Team |
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