Cover -- Dedication -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Contents -- Contributors -- Preface to the first edition -- Preface to the second edition -- Part 1 - The primary directives -- Rule 1 - Anxiety provokes memory loss: so learn a system and stick to it -- Rule 2 - All 4 one and one for all -- Rule 3 - Civilian and military trauma care is different -- Part 2 - Preparation -- Rule 4 - Any time preparing is time well spent or Prior Planning and Preparation Prevents Poor Performance -- Rule 5 - If in doubt, call the Trauma Team -- Rule 6 - Save yourself before the casualty -- Rule 7 - The Team Leader is always right -- Part 3 - Approach to the patient -- Rule 8 - Assume the worst and proceed accordingly -- Rule 9 - Read the wreckage -- Rule 10 - Do a frisk or take a risk -- Rule 11 - Don't let the obvious distract from the occult -- Rule 12 - The Trauma Team can only look or listen, not both -- Part 4 - Initial assessment and resuscitation -- Rule 13 - Tourniquets save lives -- Rule 14 - If the bleeding is dramatic, use a novel haemostatic -- Rule 15 - If you decide to crack the chest, survival's almost nil at best -- Rule 16 - The airway is more important than the cervical spine -- Rule 17 - When NEXUS guidelines clear the spine, the spinal board's a waste of time -- Rule 18 - All trauma patients are dying for oxygen -- Rule 19 - It is not lack of intubation that kills, it is lack of oxygenation -- Rule 20 - Do not delay with a burned airway -- Rule 21 - Think of cricothyrotomy when all else fails -- Rule 22 - Look at the neck TWELVE times in the primary survey -- Rule 23 - A hard collar does not protect the cervical spine -- Rule 24 - All Trauma surgeons Occasionally Miss Cervical Fractures -- Rule 25 - When patients with facial injuries look up at heaven they will soon be there -- Rule 26 - Blood on the floor is lost forever more.

Rule 27 - Short and thick does the trick -- Rule 28 - Hidden blood loss will CRAMP your resuscitation -- Rule 29 - Surgery does not follow resuscitation, it is part of resuscitation -- Rule 30 - The stabbed stay stabbed until they reach theatre -- Rule 31 - O Negative is good, but you can have too much of a good thing -- Rule 32 - An injury above and below the abdomen implies an injury in the abdomen … unless you have been hit by a giant flying horseshoe! -- Rule 33 - A penetrating wound below the nipple involves the abdomen -- Rule 34 - Examination of the abdomen is as reliable as flipping a coin -- Rule 35 - Neurogenic shock is hypovolaemic shock until proved otherwise -- Rule 36 - Think of the causes of PEA or your patient is for THE CHOP -- Rule 37 - Respiratory rate is the most sensitive indicator of deterioration, but nurses record TP not TPR -- Rule 38 - Head injury alone does not cause hypotension -- Rule 39 - Resuscitate the mother and the baby will look after itself -- Rule 40 - Children are not small adults -- Rule 41 - Everyone is equal, but some are more equal than others -- Rule 42 - Limb splintage is part of resuscitation -- Rule 43 - The Glasgow Coma Scale does not measure prognosis -- Rule 44 - A patient has a front and a back, two sides, a top and a bottom or Roll the patient three over, three under -- Rule 45 - Put a finger in before putting a tube in -- Rule 46 - The agitated patient will calm down while deteriorating -- Rule 47 - You are not dead until you are death warmed up -- Rule 48 - The golden rule is golden fluid in the golden hour -- Rule 49 - It doesn't hurt to give analgesia -- Part 5 - Investigation and definitive care -- Rule 50 - The golden hour belongs to the patient -- Rule 51 - You can assess vision with the eyes closed -- Rule 52 - You may read the newspaper, but you cannot read the DPL.

Rule 53 - FAST procedure, quick decision -- Rule 54 - A tension pneumothorax cannot be diagnosed on a chest X-ray -- Rule 55 - A supine chest X-ray may be worse than no chest X-ray at all -- Rule 56 - Investigation must never impede resuscitation -- Rule 57 - Serial blood gases are the signposts on the road to resuscitation -- Rule 58 - Patients are transferred, not their injuries or investigations -- Rule 59 - Never believe a transferring hospital -- Rule 60 - Better a negative laparotomy than a positive postmortem -- Rule 61 - Go down the middle and be liberal -- Rule 62 - Fix the pelvis to fix the bleeding -- Rule 63 - Biology is the mother of all fixation -- Rule 64 - The solution to pollution is dilution -- Rule 65 - It doesn't pay to be complacent about an elderly fracture of the rib -- Rule 66 - A missed tertiary survey is a missed injury -- Rule 67 - With multiple casualties do the most for the most -- Rule 68 - Black is beautiful, and some things are never as black as they seem -- Rule 69 - Predicting survival is hit and miss with ISS and TRISS -- Rule 70 - Stop the clot before it stops the patient -- The Last Rule: Death is the only certainty in life -- Reader's Rules -- References -- Index.