Trauma page 901

Trauma emergencies occur as physical forces are applied to the body, whereas medical emergencies include illnesses or conditions not caused by an outside force.

1. Key Concepts

Index of Suspicion: Your awareness and concern for potentially serious underlying, unseen injuries.
Mechanism of Injury (MOI): The method by which damage to skin, muscles, organs, and bones occurs. It describes the force of energy transmission acting on the body.

2. The Physics of Trauma

In trauma, energy is neither created nor destroyed; it is only converted or transformed. Three concepts of energy are associated with injury:

Potential Energy: The product of mass, gravity, and height (associated with falling objects).
Kinetic Energy: The energy of a moving object. The relationship is expressed by the mass ( $m$ ) and velocity ( $v$ ):
- Formula: $KE = \frac{1}{2}mv^{2}$
- Impact of Mass: If the mass doubles, the energy doubles.
- Impact of Velocity: If the speed doubles, the energy quadruples ( $2^{2} = 4$ ).
Work: Defined as force acting over a distance ( $W = F \times d$ ). For example, the force used to crush a car's front end over the distance it is bent represents the work of the impact.

3. Types of Trauma

Blunt Trauma: Results from a force or energy transmission to the body that causes injury without penetrating the soft tissue or internal organs.
Penetrating Trauma: Results in an injury by objects that pierce the surface of the body and damage underlying tissues and organs.

4. Severity of MOI

Non-significant MOI: Isolated injury to a body part or a fall without loss of consciousness.
Significant MOI: Includes multi-system trauma (injury to more than one body part), such as falls from great heights or high-speed motor vehicle crashes.