Rural Trauma Challenges in Alaska

Rural trauma during winter months in Alaska requires a coordinated highly skilled approach for rescue, recovery, resuscitation, and transport to distant tertiary care centers. Clinicians in this state face travel delays, extreme weather conditions, and unique transport scenarios. Early assessment and resuscitation may focus more on minimizing delays than on the traditional ABCs of emergency medicine. Clinical evaluation and treatment is also impacted by subzero temperatures, hypothermia, and prolonged exposure. Mechanical and equipment malfunctions can complicate decisions and further add to the challenges faced by medical teams who respond and deliver care in the vast wilderness of this state.