Pre-hospital care

Rescue of the injured has always been an inherent feature of peacetime and operational medical support (1). Despite this, doctrine and skills training in technical rescue and extrication has not been formally developed for Army Medical Services (AMS) personnel (2). This is in stark contrast to the civilian emergency services who have the capability of delivering a wide range of rescue skills (Box 1). One of the most common situations in which casualties require rescue is entrapment following a road traffic accident. Road accidents, although relatively infrequent, account for over half of all MoD injury deaths and are more common on operations (3). This article discusses the management of the trapped patient in the context of road traffic accidents. While much of the material is specific to these relatively common events, the principles apply to almost any entrapment situation.