Tactical Emergency Medicine

Book excerpt: This brief, practical text covers all aspects of tactical emergency medicine—the practice of emergency medicine in the field, rather than at the hospital, during disasters, police or military conflicts, mass events, and community incidents. Key topics covered include hostage survival, insertion and extraction techniques, continuum of force, medical support, planning and triage, medical evaluation in the incident zone, care in custody, medical control of incident site, decontamination, community communication, and more. Boxed definitions, case scenarios, and treatment algorithms are included. The concluding chapter presents "real world" scenarios to run tactical teams through and lists recommended training programs and continuing education.