Journal of medicine and life
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Damage-control surgery is an example of a paradigm shift. The term is borrowed from naval teminology and means gaining the initial control of a damaged ship. Because of the lethal triad the polytrauma patient is at a grave risk. ⋯ After 24-48 hours in the ICU, in which time the physiological disturbances were corrected, a further intervention is perfomed for definitively treating the injuries. Further refinements consider five stages and not three in damage-control surgery. The bright side of the concept is an up to 70% survivability rate but with a higher risk of complications, mostly due to the policy of temporary closing the abdomen and sepsis.