[Implementation of the Hartford Consensus and Tactical Combat Casualty Care recommendations in emergency services: a review of the literature]

Recent terrorist attacks involving active shooters or improvised explosive devices have shown that traditionally sequenced emergency management leads to delays in attending victims and suboptimal outcomes. Tactical medicine, a new concept in prehospital care, emerged from experience attending the wounded in combat zones, where the Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) recommendations are applied. TCCC targets 3 main causes of preventable death in combat: bleeding from extremities, tension pneumothorax, and airway obstruction. A change in the delivery of emergency care during terrorist attacks is now required if we are to improve survival rates. To that end, strategies based on the TCCC and Hartford Consensus recommendations have been developed. Both these approaches describe procedures for both first responders and medical professionals to apply in areas under threat.