Forward Hemorrhage Control During Prolonged Evacuation.
Military medicine · 2026-08-04 · Guideline / consensus
Abstract
Uncontrolled hemorrhage remains a leading cause of early, potentially preventable death following traumatic injury. Contemporary multicenter data continue to demonstrate that fatalities from hemorrhagic shock cluster within the first hours after injury, reinforcing the operational principle that the critical timeline is from point of injury to initiation of hemostatic resuscitation rather than time to hospital arrival. Ongoing armed conflict, including the war in Ukraine, as well as broader preparedness for future disasters and mass casualty events, underscores the need for evidence-based, practical strategies to reduce preventable morbidity and mortality. Panel discussion and supporting documents underscore that forward resuscitation must be feasible for protocol-based teams in austere environments: early blood where possible, ideally low-titer O whole blood, plasma-based bridging strategies (including spray- or freeze-dried plasma, which is rapidly becoming available and very new to the prehospital paradigm) when blood logistics are constrained, and mandatory early adjuncts, tranexamic acid and calcium, embedded into simple, auditable pathways. This synthesis integrates the panel's "good, bad, and hard realities" from the audience discussion and proposes practical next steps for scalable clinical governance in the prehospital space in Ukraine under ongoing conflict constraints.