PHTLS: Prehospital Trauma Life Support, 9th Edition Doody's Expert Review Review Questionnaire ISBN: 9781284171471 ISBN-10: 1284171477 Copyright: 2020 Edition: 9th Author: NAEMT, Doody's Expert Review    Score: 88 Doody's Star Rating™ and Doody's Expert Review provide by Doody Enterprises, Inc. Reviewer: Lesley Osborn,  MD  (University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston) Description With the rapidly expanding research and education in prehospital care, this update of a book on prehospital trauma life support is more than necessary. It covers a broad range of topics in a concise and efficient manner. The layout is easy to follow, and pictures/images are appropriately placed. The accompanying website gives learners access to the book in a user-friendly format. It is easy to navigate and allows students to click on reference links, which likely will enhance their knowledge base. The prior edition was published in 2014. Purpose The purpose is to lay the groundwork for assessment of the trauma patient in the prehospital setting by nonphysician providers. This is a noteworthy objective as rapid assessment and resuscitation of this patient population is critical in improving morbidity and mortality. Providing this information in both print and online format allows readers the option to learn in a way that best fits their learning style as well as lifestyle. Adding the online format will allow students who wish to access this at work or on the go an easier option to do so. Audience The audience includes both civilian and military prehospital providers (EMTs, paramedics, students, etc.). The authors and contributors are well-respected and well-researched leaders in the field of prehospital medicine. Features The book presents a common approach to rapid assessment of the traumatically injured patient, as well as the physiology behind this unique subset of patients. It establishes a platform on which prehospital providers can confidently build their resuscitation skills. This book covers the physiology of hemorrhagic shock and the physiology of the trauma patient thoroughly. It presents one way of performing patient assessment along with acronyms to help learning providers. The organization of the chapters into different regions of trauma (head, torso, spine, etc.) is an easy way to break down the approach to trauma diagnosis and resuscitation. The book also manages to touch on special situations like MCI, environmental injuries, wilderness medicine, and tactical medicine. Though these are large topic areas that likely deserve their own book, it is appropriate to mention them in this fashion to familiarize providers with them. Assessment This book and website are thorough and meet all expectations for the intended audience of prehospital providers. There are not too many competing titles in this field as this book has been a staple for many years. The updated edition is refreshing and long overdue, although it is disappointing it did not further highlight the importance of prehospital blood product resuscitation, as its popularity is growing, along with the supporting literature. The most recent version of ATLS Student Manual: Advanced Trauma Life Support, 10th edition, ACS (American College of Surgeons, 2018) emphasizes this. Review Questionnaire Range Question Score 1-10 Are the product's objectives met? 10 1-5 Does the website help achieve the purpose? 4 1-10 Rate the worthiness of those objectives. 8 1-5 Is this directed to an appropriate level? 5 1-5 Is there significant duplication? (1=significant, 5=insignificant) 4 1-5 Are there significant omissions? (1=significant, 5=insignificant) 4 1-5 Rate the authority of the authors. 5 1-5 Are there sufficient illustrations? 5 1-5 Rate the pedagogic value of the illustrations. 4 1-5 Are there sufficient references? 5 1-5 Rate the currency of the references. 3 1-5 Rate the helpfulness of the index. 4 1-5 Rate the added value from the online version. 4 1-5 Is the online version easy to access? 5 1-5 Rate the ease of navigation/search. 4 1-5 Rate the pedagogic quality of images on the online version. 3 1-5 Rate the value of added audiovisual features online. 3 1-5 Is there sufficient use of hypertext links? 5 1-5 Are there hyperlinks from references to journal articles? 5 1-5 Is there appropriate use of features like bookmarking, printing/exporting? 4 1-10 Is this a worthwhile contribution to the field? 10 1-10 If this is a 2nd or later edition, is this new edition needed? 10 ©2025 Doody Enterprises, Inc.