['Advanced trauma life support' in Netherlands].

Introduction of the principles of advanced trauma life support (ATLS) in the management of accident victims has been in progress in the Netherlands since 1995. The main ATLS principles are that the aid giver treats the most dangerous disorder first and does no further damage. After assessment and, if necessary, treatment of the airways, the respiration, the circulation and any craniocerebral injury, an exploratory examination is carried out. Physicians receive theoretical and practical instructions in this form of management during an intensive two-day course, counselled by a coordinating organization in the USA. Most of those attending are interns in general surgery, traumatology and orthopaedics, gatekeeper doctors of emergency rooms and army medical officers. The standardized way of thinking improves the communication and understanding between the various disciplines involved in trauma care, in part because there exist comparable programmes for ambulance care and emergency care. Other measures improving the quality of trauma care are regionalization of the trauma care, medical helicopter teams and evaluation of the effects of ATLS as an operating procedure.