The American College of Surgeons (ACS) and its Committee on Trauma (COT) have developed the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) Program for doctors, a systematic, concise training for the early care of trauma patients. The ATLS Program provides participants with a safe, reliable method for immediate management of the injured patient and the basic knowledge necessary to:

1. Access the patient’s condition rapidly and accurately.
2. Resuscitate and stabilize the patient according to priority.
3. Determine if the patient’s needs exceed a facility’s capacity.
4. Arrange appropriately for the patient’s inter-hospital transfer (who, what, when, and how).
5. Assure that optimum care is provided and that the level of care does not deteriorate at any point during the evaluation, resuscitation, or transfer process.

For doctors who infrequently treat trauma, the ATLS course provides an easily remembered method for evaluating and treating the victim of a traumatic event. For those doctors who treat traumatic disease on a frequent basis, the ATLS course provides a scaffold for evaluation, treatment, education and quality assurance – in short, a system of trauma care that is measurable, reproducible and comprehensive.

The ATLS Student Course presents a concise approach to assessing and managing multiple injured patients. The course equips doctors with knowledge and techniques that are comprehensive and easily adapted to fit their needs. The skills described in this manual represent one safe way to perform each technique. The ACS recognizes that there are other acceptable approaches. However, the knowledge and skills taught in the course are easily adapted to all venues for the care of these patients.