Prehospital paediatric emergency care: paediatric triage.
The practice of triage was conceived during the Napoleonic wars, with the aim of salvaging those soldiers whose injuries were readily treatable, returning them to the battlefield at the earliest opportunity. Literally, the word triage means "to sieve" or "to sort" (French trier), and those earlier battlefield principles have been refined and expanded to now encompass trauma and medical emergencies, with triage practiced in prehospital and hospital settings. To address the anatomical, physiological and developmental differences encountered when dealing with children, specific paediatric triage systems have also been developed, and this article discusses their merits.
Department of Child Health, Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Longfleet Road, Poole, Dorset BH15 2JB, UK. julian.sandell@poole.nhs.uk
J M
JM
Sandell
I K
IK
Maconochie
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F
Jewkes
D000208:Acute Disease / Q000628:therapy; D000552:Ambulances; D002648:Child; D002662:Child Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D015277:Hotlines; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D013222:State Medicine / Q000458:organization & administration; D013689:Telephone; D014218:Triage / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006113:United Kingdom; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000628:therapy