DrABC

DrABC is an acronym (abbreviation) summarizing the procedure in a critical medical situation.

D anger

 * Are rescuers in danger? Repetition of the injury mechanism (traffic accident, drowning)! Furthermore, infection, the environment, aggression... Traffic accidents and rescue from water are high-risk.
 * The health of the rescuer is superior to the health of the rescued!
 * What happened? (injury mechanism)
 * Suspected spinal cord injury
 * Suspected internal bleeding
 * Mass disaster??
 * How many are injured?
 * What other resources are available?
 * Who to go to first? (a massive splatter of bleeding, lying calmly among the screaming ...)

r esponse

 * Reaction to being addressed or a painful stimulus
 * minimal medical history
 * assessment of the patient's general condition
 * Securing help, or contacting the IRS! (An alternative abbreviation is DR's ABC, where S stands for shout for help!)

A irways

 * consideration of securing the airways from tilting to intubation to coniopuncture

B reathing

 * assessment and breath support

C irculation

 * evaluation and promotion of circulation

Further order by leading flag

 * Non-traumatic loss of consciousness
 * glycemia, search for an undetected head injury, indicative neurological examination (Disabilities according to the ABCDE procedure)
 * Accident event
 * examination of the whole body (Exposure according to the ABCDE procedure)

= Why use DrABC instead of ABCDE? = There are several basic procedures using the alphabet acronym. Why use the modification prefixing the letters D and R? The classic ABCDE, used in ALS, does not have the basic control of the situation at the beginning, which is necessary in the emergency medicine setting. If you are using the procedure in a high-threshold intake environment (the patient is indicated for invasive monitoring of vital functions) you certainly start from A. Nevertheless, several pieces of information (injury mechanism or development information) are essential, which are summarized under Danger. The initial response to a painful stimulus (Response in DrABC) is done before the evaluation of circulation (Circulation and then Disability in ABCDE).

After evaluating the circulation in emergency medicine, the next order of D and E is questionable. For patients with an accident, Exposure is key, while a patient with impaired consciousness really deserves Disability first. For non-native users, the English terms Disability and Exposure are not very instructive. The still unsolved question is the meaning of the letter F - we give the pharmacy earlier and Funeral is not always the next step.

The question is not what to use in practice on the patient, but how to emphasize to the students of the field that the beginning is control of the situation (Danger) and that it is good to communicate with patients (Response). Various abbreviations (ABCDE, XABCDE, DrABC or Dr'sABC, CABC, ...) will certainly be used in teaching worldwide.

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