ABSTRACT
Neurotrauma is extremely common both in military and civilian settings, with head injuries accounting for most of the trauma-related mortality and long-term morbidity. From civilian studies back in the 1980s and 1990s, survival in traumatic brain injury (TBI) is greatly influenced by the timing of intervention and it is therefore of utmost importance that clinicians at the frontline know how to stabilise such patients prior to repatriation to a centre for definitive care. Similarly, patients with unstable spinal injuries can have devastating functional outcome if not handled appropriately from the outset. It is not realistic to expect a spine to be fixed in the fields, but the clinician needs to have the skillset to identify such injuries, put in place appropriate precautions, and manage the systemic complications of spinal cord injuries which may be life-threatening.
