Abstract
This chapter discusses the first assessment of trauma patients. Trauma still is the leading cause of mortality globally. Given the full range of possible injuries, the approach to the traumatic patient to varies widely. To have more standardized care, the Advanced Traumatic Life Support® (ATLS®) program has created conventions to ease patient assessment and make care uniform all over the world. The goal of this chapter is to give a fast overview of what the initial trauma care is, ranging from the statistics that make a uniform approach to trauma necessary to the actual preparation and care.