Triage — prioritising treatment to those who would benefit most

IN MEDICINE, THE TERM WAS FIRST USED BY DOMINIQUE JEAN LARREY, A SURGEON IN THE FRENCH ARMY DURING THE NAPOLEONIC WARS

nNEW DELHI: The term ‘triage’ was mainstreamed in the 1980s by the madly popular TV show M*A*S*H, about a group of doctors working in the United States Army 4077thmobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) unit in the frontlines during the Korean War in 1950-53.

But the word goes back two centuries. The etymology of triage is from trier, which is French for sorting, sifting or segregating. In medicine, the term was first used by Dominique Jean Larrey, a surgeon in the French army during the Napoleonic Wars, who used it to describe the need to prioritise treatment of the wounded by physically assessing the severity of their injuries.

It was later used by French doctors during World War 1, who divided the wounded into those who were likely to live regardless of treatment, those unlikely to live, and those who could be saved with immediate treatment.

This concept of prioritising treatment by initial prognosis was streamlined into the military across Europe in the 1930s as a method of assessing and treating the wounded in the frontlines.

Triage is now used in emergency rooms the world over to help paramedics prioritise treatment to those who would benefit most. The modern triage system is based on scores depending on the nature of injury, which can range from people with broken bones, head injuries and burns in case of accidents and fire, to cardiac arrest and stroke.

“In an emergency that results in mass injuries, such as accidents, fires or bomb blasts, the emergency room turns into a war zone where the priority is saving as many lives as possible. That’s when we have to rely on triage, which helps paramedics and doctors to quickly assess the situation and give the treatment needed,” said an emergency room doctor, requesting anonymity.