Pediatric Trauma: Management From an Austere Prospective.

Pediatric trauma represents a notable proportion of casualties encountered by Combat medics, physician assistants, and physicians while in the deployed setting. Most of these resuscitation teams receive limited pediatric- specific training and suffer subsequent emotional stress due the perceived high-stakes nature of caring for gravely wounded children. Even when children survive long enough to arrive at combat support hospitals, there remain high risks for morbidity and mortality for many of them. There are numerous reports of the epidemiological characteristics of these pediatric patients, the common mechanisms of injury, the hospital lengths of stay, and calls for pediatric-specific equipment and specialist presence in-theatre. There is scant literature, however, on child-specific battlefield resuscitation and training for initial providers, and we believe that, with appropriately tailored pediatric resuscitation education and training strategies, there is some potential for a reduction in the morbidity and mortality associated with childhood combat injury.