title: [Mass casualties after an explosion].
abstract: Because of the intifada, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has become characterized by violence against civilians on both sides. Since the early 1990s, this conflict has seen directed operations performed by suicide attackers, whose goal is to kill civilians who are not direct participants in the confrontation. For urban and local hospitals this means that they must always be aware of being confronted with limited multiple-casualty incidents. This has required a restructuring of emergency plans at the scene and in the hospital. At the scene the incident is classified according to the number and degree of injury of the victims. The accumulation of such incidents made it necessary in Israel to change views of the system of triage, which has essential differences from the central European system. Apart from changing preclinical and clinical management algorithms, the surgeons specialized in casualties must be prepared for a new quality of injuries. Barotrauma of the lung and multiple, seemingly superficial injuries often only emerge later as life-threatening and lead to the paralysis of intensive care and surgical capacity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Rabin Medical Center-Beilinson Campus, Petach Tikva, Israel. mgstein@bezeqint.net
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stein
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hirshberg
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gerich
mesh_terms: D001753:Blast Injuries / Q000145:classification / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000601:surgery*; D004189:Disaster Planning / Q000639:trends*; D005107:Explosions / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005544:Forecasting; D005858:Germany; D006287:Health Planning Guidelines; D006801:Humans; D009104:Multiple Trauma / Q000145:classification / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000601:surgery; D020380:Needs Assessment / Q000639:trends; D013405:Suicide / Q000639:trends; D023481:Terrorism / Q000639:trends*; D014218:Triage / Q000639:trends*