The trauma team leader

In Europe trauma team leaders tend to be either emergency physicians, surgeons (orthopaedic surgeons, neurosurgeons, general surgeons) or anaesthesiologists and specialists in intensive care. The leader is well trained in trauma care and is available on a 24 hour basis. The functions are to interpret, apply and decide about the priorities for the primary and secondary survey of polytrauma as well as team training. Studies have shown that the presence of a trauma team leader improved resuscitation time [25][53] .