Volume 10, Issue 9: Traumatic cardiac arrest

Traumatic cardiac arrest – HOTT off the press!

It’s midnight on a chilly Saturday night shift when the MDT lights up: ‘32-year old male fallen from 3rd floor flat, abnormal breathing’. En route you remind yourself and your crewmate of the importance of the HOTT/HHTT principle for traumatic cardiac arrests, but how will your knowledge work in practice?

CPD benefit

Trauma is the leading cause of premature death in people under 40, while many survivors are left with lifelong disabilities. This article shows how the HHTT/HOTT approach can be used to manage the potential causes of death in trauma to provide the trauma patient with the best chance of survival. The article covers the pathophysiology of death in trauma and gives guidance on the assessment and management of traumatically injured patients using the HOTT algorithm including when the patient might be in vital need of rapid and effective management of hypovolaemia, hypoxia, tension pneumothorax and cardiac tamponade.

Assessment Answers

You can check your answers to the quiz by clicking the link below:

Standby CPD Volume 10 – Assessment Answers