The term traumatology could be translated as accident medicine. Traumatology deals with the development, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of wounds and injuries. Psychological trauma also falls under this term. Psychological trauma refers to severe emotional upheaval and the resulting symptoms and sequelae.
Here you will find further information as well as selected traumatology specialists and centers.
The term trauma comes from the Greek and means"injury, wound". On the one hand, doctors use it to describe a damaging (traumatizing) effect on the organism. This can be an accident or a psychological injury, for example. On the other hand, the resulting consequential damage is also a trauma, such as a
Depending on the number of injured organs and tissues, a distinction is made between monotrauma and polytrauma.
Monotrauma (mono = single) involves injury to one organ, which in most cases is not life-threatening. This is mainly due to the fact that the course of the accident in polytrauma is generally much less severe than in monotrauma. However, there are also very serious and life-threatening individual injuries, for which the term barytrauma ("bary" = serious) has become established. Life-threatening individual injuries include, for example
The life-threatening nature of these individual injuries results, for example, from the importance of the organ (craniocerebral injuries) or the possible loss of blood, which can be considerable (pelvic injuries).
Polytrauma is the term used to describe a simultaneous, severe injury to several organs. It is a multiple injury and, as the name ("poly" = many) suggests, affects several areas of the body or organ systems. A polytrauma is basically a serious and life-threatening situation in which either all the injuries taken together or a single one of them is life-threatening.
There are many different types of trauma. What they all have in common is the application of violence to the body, which results in a threat to the integrity of the body. This violence can be roughly divided intophysical and psychological violence.
Physical violence includes
effects.
Mental trauma includes all psychologically stressful situations such as
Mechanical trauma can occur in many different ways. They are usually caused by the use of weapons or sharp objects, but often also by bare hands.
In particular, stab wounds or cuts caused by the use of sharp objects can lead to severe bleeding if larger arteries are severed.
Gunshot wounds can also lead to very serious incidents and assume life-threatening proportions. The dangerous thing about gunshot wounds is that once the bullet has entered the body, it spreads even further and can cause massive soft tissue damage. This tissue damage is often much larger and more pronounced than the usually small entry point of the bullet would suggest.
Blunt trauma is caused by a violent impact without injury to the skin. This can be caused, for example, by blows with a fist or hard objects, but also by joint dislocations (dislocations of joints). Blunt injuries can be very serious, but they are often much more difficult to diagnose than sharp injuries. This is because sharp injuries can be seen with the naked eye, whereas most of the blunt trauma is internal.
High-impact traumas, which are injuries caused by the impact of very high kinetic energy, are also mechanical injuries. They always occur when the body is moving at high speed and is abruptly decelerated. Typical examples of high-speed traumas are car and traffic accidents as well as sports accidents, such as skiing or cycling.
Finally, bite wounds are also mechanical injuries, most commonly caused by animal bites. However, human bites are also not uncommon and are often more difficult to treat. This is because bite injuries caused by humans are associated with a significantly higher risk of infection.
Physical trauma refers to all injuries and consequences caused by extreme and pathological environmental influences. These include, among others
Chemical traumas are injuries to the body caused by the effects of toxic substances on the body. These substances can have a damaging effect on the body in liquid, solid or gaseous form. This can occur from the outside via the skin surface or from the inside via mucous membranes and the bloodstream.
Chemical trauma includes in particular
The causes of psychological trauma can be very diverse, which is why only a few examples are listed below:
Trauma physicians (trauma surgeons and emergency physicians) are responsible for all physical trauma consequences. Trauma surgery and emergency medicine are a broad field and trauma physicians must be qualified in many areas. These primarily include
One of the most important tasks in trauma surgery is the treatment of injuries to the musculoskeletal system. These include bone fractures or muscle and tendon injuries.
The transition from the field of activity of a trauma surgeon to that of an orthopaedic surgeon is fluid. For this reason, these specialist training programs were merged in Germany in 2005 ("Specialist in Orthopaedics and Trauma Surgery").
The first aim of traumatology is to avert acute danger to life and to contain any complications. After this, the patient is usually initially cared for in the intensive care unit.
Polytrauma patients must be cared for in hospital by a well-trained and experienced team of specialists . This includes the following specialists, for example:
Such injuries often affect a wide variety of body regions and organ areas. This is why such a team consists of doctors from different specialties, and the above list could go on and on.
Depending on the severity of the trauma, rehabilitation measures are necessary (often over months or years). These are carried out by physiotherapists and occupational therapists .
Patients who have suffered psychological trauma are treated psychotherapeutically as part of psychotraumatology. Specialists in psychiatry are responsible for this. There are different trauma therapies depending on the type and severity of the trauma.
The various therapy methods aim to
This includes, for example, behavioral therapy. After the therapy, the patient should feel able to control, limit or resolve the trauma symptoms.
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