Acute exertional lumbar paraspinal compartment syndrome.

Study Design: A case report and review of the literature.

Objective: To report a rare case of paraspinal compartment syndrome that presented a diagnostic challenge.

Summary Of Background Data: Paraspinal compartment syndrome is a rare condition defined as increased pressure within a closed fibro-osseous space, resulting in reduced blood flow and tissue perfusion in that space.

Disaster preparedness, triage, and surge capacity for hospital definitive care areas: optimizing outcomes when demands exceed resources.

Disaster planning must anticipate how demands imposed by a disaster reconcile with the capacity of the treating facility. Resources must be organized before an event so that they are optimally used to treat as many victims as possible, as well as to avoid overwhelming available resources.

Two New York City hospitals' surgical response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack in New York City.

Background: We describe the surgical response of two affiliated hospitals during the day of, and week following, the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attack at the World Trade Center in New York City. The city of New York has 18 state designated regional trauma centers that receive major trauma victims. The southern half of Manhattan is served by a burn center, two regional trauma centers, and a community hospital that is an affiliate of one of the regional trauma centers.

Disaster preparation and management for the intensive care unit.

The purpose of this report is to provide information regarding preparation for disaster management from the perspective of ICU physicians. Both a framework toward ICU preparation for disaster management and a guide to the relevant literature are presented. Our objective is to show that the understanding of disaster preparedness on multiple levels, including government, hospital, ICU, and clinician, may lead to optimal management in a disaster.