How may people experience Trauma?
Trauma is the leading cause of death among Americans between the ages of 1 and 44 years. Blunt trauma includes motor vehicle collisions, pedestrians and bicyclists struck by cars, falls, and assaults with blunt objects. Penetrating trauma includes bullet or stab wounds. The majority of deaths after trauma results from hypovolemic shock (low blood pressure from blood loss) and severe brain injury. Patients in hypovolemic shock develop a state of systemic tissue ischemia (decreased oxygen and blood flow to the tissues) with a subsequent reperfusion injury at the time of fluid resuscitation.
