Trauma is one of the oldest subjects in medical sciences, because it appeared just as early as human being came to the earth. At the same time, trauma is also a novel subject, because trauma has been strikingly increasing with the high-speed development of economical construction, traffic transport and sharp increase of vehicles in number. Therefore, trauma is called “the twin brother of the modern civilization”. Nowadays, over a million people die of trauma and ten millions of people are wounded each year throughout the world. In China, over one hundred thousand people die of trauma, and millions of people are wounded each year. As a result, trauma takes the third position among the death causes, just secondary to malignant tumors and cardio-cerebro-vascular diseases, and the first position if calculated according to work years of potential life lost (WYPLL). It clearly indicates that the hazard to society and the loss of labor force induced by trauma are greater than those induced by any other diseases.

　　Among the deaths due to trauma, about one half of patients suffer from road traffic trauma (RTT), and the rest from industrial and life trauma. In war time, there always occur large amounts of war wounds, majority of which are firearm wounds.

　　Much attention has been focused on trauma research over the world. There is now a trend towards research by means of the intersection and interpenetration of preventive, clinical and basic medical sciences, and even trans-course way. The main contents or research aspects in this field are shown as the following. (1) Epidemiology of trauma. It is a branch subject dealing with the etiology, susceptible factors, epidemic patterns of trauma and its prevention, i.e. the corresponding preventive measurements of trauma are able to be pointed out after finding out various risk factors and regular patterns of epidemiology; (2) Scoring of injury severity. Scoring of different severity of trauma can be used to evaluate the injury severity and therapeutic efficacy of trauma, and also to predict its prognosis; (3) Emergency treatment of trauma. First aid network has been set up, which is equipped with corresponding communication, vehicles and emergency workers, forming a set of medical service from first aid on the spot to definitive treatment in the hospital under the unified conduction and dispatch; (4) Wound ballistics. It is a branch subject which deals with moving law and wounding mechanism of missile in the organism. It is helpful to accurately judge the injury severity of the wound track, peri-track and remote regions, and provide theoretic evidence for prevention, diagnosis and treatment of missile injury; (5) Traumatic molecular biology. It is to study the differences of trauma endurance at the molecular level, find out the gene(s) which can endure trauma, and investigate the effects of cytokines on wound repair, etc., providing theoretic guidance for elucidation of pathogenesis of trauma and tissue repair; (6) Basic studies on traumatic infection, traumatic immunity, traumatic shock, traumatic biochemistry, traumatic pathology, traumatic biomechanics and so on. Development of these basic theories is undoubtedly very useful to the treatment of trauma; (7) Studies on regional injuries and complications of trauma. To use related new techniques for the diagnosis and treatment of regional injuries, and to investigate the pathogenesis of complications and set forth measurements for their prevention and treatment; (8) Advanced techniques such as electronic communication system are used to search for the wounded, diagnose the injury severity, hold tele-consultation, etc., leading to the improvement of first aid on the spot and the treatment in medical grass roots.

　　Experts predict that trauma will continue to increase in quite a long time. However, to a large extent trauma is also preventable. For example, if labor protection and safety education at factories are well done, equipment is advanced together with insurance instruments, workers are well trained before going to post, working accident injuries would be largely decreased. In addition, if each road user in traffic transport has excellent consciousness of traffic safety and strictly abide by the traffic regulations, road traffic accidents and the induced injuries would also be greatly reduced.

　　In order to better perform the prevention and treatment of trauma, the following work should be strengthened in the future. (1) To establish national data base for trauma, which will provide essential data for trauma research; (2) To strengthen studies on injury epidemiology, find out the susceptible factors of trauma, and carry out the corresponding prevention; (3) To perfect and standardize the scoring system of trauma, and extend its application. Meanwhile, to further improve its precision in the evaluation of injury severity and prognosis of trauma; (4) To improve first aid on the spot, emergency treatment at emergency room and intensive care units (ICU) in the aspects of organization, techniques and equipments; (5) To intensively and extensively study the pathogenesis of trauma by means of new theories, new techniques, especially those in biomechanics and molecular biology, and provide theoretical evidence for its prevention and treatment; and (6) To study and develop new medical equipments, medicines and new medical measures for the treatment of trauma through adoption of trans-course cooperation, which is necessary to improve its cure rate and then reduce its mortality.

　　Research Institute of Surgery, the Third Military Medical　University, Chongqing 400042, China (Wang ZG)