The beginning of the 21st century has been marked by a rapid economic growth, triggered, in the first place, by strong technological changes. This was inevitably followed by growing number of injuries at work, which often cause temporary and permanent disabilities.
As a result, the number of concomitant arm injuries has increased considerably, reaching 34% of all multiple traumatic injuries treated at the surgical hospitals. Moreover, the injuries caused by new technological equipment, are often more severe and complex.
Questions of restorative surgery of all injured anatomical structures can be answered with the help of precise surgical techniques. But the organizational problems still need to be solved; many of them are caused by a large number of mistakes and complications made by the primary care.
Emergency angio-trauma aid to patients with concomitant arm injuries is currently developing in the clinical practice in two interrelated directions: creation of specialized hospital departments and providing multi-specialty surgery hospitals with qualified medical personnel.
In Astana, the department of microsurgery and hand injuries of the Research Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics (headed by professor N.D. Batpenov) introduced in 2001, and has been providing since then, an emergency surgical care to patients with concomitant arm injuries, on the 24-hour basis.
In order to improve the treatment results, we have analyzed the common treatment schemes offered to patients with concomitant arm injuries, and revealed serious mistakes and complications that make the actions of the secondary aid considerably longer and complicated. The main concern causes late diagnostics of acute arterial blood flow disturbance in an injured arm.
With this view in mind, we developed and introduced into clinical practice a new scheme of emergency angio-trauma aid to patients with concomitant arm injuries. According to this scheme, the medical procedure should be clearly regulated, while taking into account the opinions of all specialists, who provide medical care to the patient and determine further treatment steps.
The proposed innovation has considerably reduced the time period between the first visit to a doctor and the operation. It allows not to miss the best time for the surgery, and considerably reduces the number of the possible complications that appear during the postoperative period and can affect the total result of treatment.
The work is submitted to Scientific Conference "The Problems of International Integration of Educational Standards", England (London) - France (Paris), April 20-28, 2009. Came to the Editor´s Office on 14.01.2009.