This document discusses triage of chemical casualties.
Triage is the process of sorting or prioritizing casualties when providing immediate and maximal care to each is impossible. Triage is practiced only when a mass casualty situation occurs and the needs of the casualties for care overwhelm the medical capabilities to provide that care. The triage officer tries to provide immediate care to those who need it to survive; sets aside temporarily or delays treatment of those who have minor injuries or do not need immediate medical intervention; and does not use limited medical assets on the hopelessly injured. It is essential for a triage officer to know the natural course of a given injury, the medical resources on hand, the current and likely casualty flow, and the medical evacuation capabilities. When working in a chemically contaminated environment, the triage officer is in protective gear and is not immediately available to assist with casualty care, which is ideally done within a collective protection area. Decontamination, a time-consuming process, must be carried out before the casualty receives more definitive care. At the rear echelons of care, medical capabilities are much greater and decontamination has already been accomplished before the casualty enters for treatment. Casualties with combined injuries not only have wounds that were caused by conventional weapons but also have been exposed to a chemical agent. The conventional wounds may or may not be contaminated with a chemical agent. Few experimental data on this topic exists, and little has been written specifically about these casualties from experiences in World War I or the Iran-Iraq War. 3 references