The intensive care unit for trauma surgery patients. What structural and organisational conditions are necessary?

Intensive care medicine is an essential core element of the treatment of trauma patients, and especially in the treatment of multiple trauma it goes far beyond postoperative intensive care monitoring of vital signs. In the past, the way this staffing-and cost-intensive treatment phase was organised was based on the particular local circumstances that had historically obtained; at present, intensive care medicine, especially in trauma surgery, is going through a period of structural change that has been motivated by the desire to improve economic efficiency and goes hand in hand with a great many recommendations from and agreements with organisations that exist to influence policy within the professions concerned. However, generally valid structural requirements can be defined regardless of the underlying organisational form. The basic and indispensable requirement is the constant presence of competent trauma surgeons who are equal to the specific pathophysiological features of intensive care treatment in trauma surgery and can integrate these into the overall context of general trauma management.