TY - JOUR T1 - Letter to the editor regarding the joint statement from the American College of Surgeons' Committee on Trauma (ACS-COT) and the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) regarding the clinical use of resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta (REBOA) JF - Trauma Surgery & Acute Care Open DO - 10.1136/tsaco-2018-000167 VL - 3 IS - 1 SP - e000167 AU - Joseph J DuBose AU - Todd E Rasmussen AU - Michael R Davis Y1 - 2018/03/01 UR - http://tsaco.bmj.com/content/3/1/e000167.abstract N2 - At a time when the value of military-civilian coordination in trauma care practice, research and development is being emphasized,1 we are concerned by the recently published statement of the American College of Surgeons’ Committee on Trauma and the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACS-COT/ACEP) on the use of resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta (REBOA).2 We are disconcerted that the work group did not include any representatives from the US military’s Joint Trauma System (JTS) and failed to cite the JTS’ REBOA clinical practice guideline (CPG).3 We are concerned that after overlooking the military perspective on the use of REBOA, the work group crafted language is too prescriptive and that could limit the military health system’s use of this life-saving technique in deployed settings.The data that defined the disproportionate mortality from torso hemorrhage that led to the development of REBOA were generated by the US military.4 JTS-led studies of combat injured indicate that as many as one in five service members killed in action during the recent wars bled to death while being transported to, or waiting for, a surgeon and an equipped operating room.4 … ER -