[Basic requirements of care in polytrauma].

The authors analyze briefly the criteria for the classification of multiple injuries and submit the definition they suggest: "Polytraumatism is a supraluminal injury of more than one bodily system which threatens the life and is associated with a serious traumatic response". The authors outline the minimal conditions which must be met by hospitals treating multiple injuries, which must operate continuously. Polytraumatism must be treated at surgical departments, only. The surgeon has in a multidisciplinary team the leading position and defines the order of therapeutic and surgical operations. Depending on the urgency of these operations, it is possible to classify injuries into four grades, which are defined in more detail. The paper contains the authors' own group of multiple injuries formed by 47 casualties in 1984-1987. The lethality was 31.9% and is evidence of the serious character of polytraumatism.