Surgery & Trauma Clinical Guidelines

The surgery and trauma guideline index: ATLS 11, ACS trauma standards, TQP and EAST guidelines, WSES, severe TBI, SSI prevention, intra-abdominal infection.

Editorial responsibility: The Clinical Database

The surgery and trauma guideline library. This index lists the professional-society guidelines that govern operative and injury care, with the publisher, current edition, scope, and a verified source for each. The multi-part syntheses that the site’s other departments carry are forthcoming for this department; until they publish, this index is the department’s source list.

Governing guidelines

Guideline	Publisher	Edition	Scope	Source
Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS)	ACS Committee on Trauma	11th edition (2025)	Initial assessment and management of the injured patient; the 11th edition reorders the primary survey to xABCDE, placing control of exsanguinating hemorrhage before airway	ACS
Resources for Optimal Care of the Injured Patient	ACS Committee on Trauma	2022 Standards (7th edition)	The personnel, resources, policies, and practices required for ACS trauma center verification; 110 standards	ACS
Trauma Quality Programs (TQP) Best Practices Guidelines	ACS Committee on Trauma	Rolling series	Topic-specific management guidelines for trauma care providers, including geriatric trauma, massive transfusion, traumatic brain injury, orthopedic trauma, and genitourinary injury	ACS
Practice Management Guidelines	EAST	Rolling library (GRADE methodology)	Evidence-based guidelines in trauma and acute care surgery, including recent guidelines on renal trauma, the open abdomen, rib fractures in older adults, and REBOA	EAST
Diagnosis and Treatment of Acute Appendicitis: 2020 Update of the WSES Jerusalem Guidelines	WSES	2020	Diagnosis, non-operative management of uncomplicated appendicitis, timing of appendectomy, surgical technique, intra-operative grading, perforated appendicitis with phlegmon or abscess, and perioperative antibiotics	World Journal of Emergency Surgery
Guidelines for the Management of Severe Traumatic Brain Injury	Brain Trauma Foundation	4th edition (2016; decompressive craniectomy update 2020)	Recommendations across 18 monitoring and treatment topics for severe TBI, including surgical procedures, intracranial pressure monitoring, management of brain swelling, and nutrition	Brain Trauma Foundation
Clinical Practice Guidelines for Antimicrobial Prophylaxis in Surgery	ASHP / IDSA / SIS / SHEA	2013	A standardized approach to antimicrobial agent selection, timing, and duration for prevention of surgical site infection, by procedure	AJHP
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Guideline for the Prevention of Surgical Site Infection	CDC / HICPAC	2017	Parenteral and non-parenteral antimicrobial prophylaxis, glycemic control, normothermia, oxygenation, and antiseptic prophylaxis for SSI prevention	JAMA Surgery
The Surgical Infection Society Guidelines on the Management of Intra-Abdominal Infection	SIS	2024 update	Risk assessment, source control, and the timing, selection, and duration of antimicrobial therapy for intra-abdominal infection, updating the 2017 revised guidelines	PubMed
Guidelines for Perioperative Care in Elective Colorectal Surgery: ERAS Society Recommendations 2025	ERAS Society	2025	Graded recommendations for each element of the enhanced recovery pathway in elective colorectal surgery, including preoperative optimization and postoperative mobilization	Surgery
WHO Surgical Safety Checklist and Guidelines for Safe Surgery	WHO	2009	Ten objectives for safe surgery and the 19-item checklist applied before anesthesia induction, before skin incision, and before the patient leaves the operating room	NCBI Bookshelf
STOP THE BLEED	ACS Committee on Trauma	Current course (revised 2025)	Public bleeding control training in three actions: pressure, packing, and tourniquet application	ACS Stop the Bleed

How the series are built

Each guideline series on this site is a synthesis, not a summary of a single guideline. The relevant professional-society guidelines for a topic are read together, their recommendations integrated into one coherent clinical reference, and every substantive statement carries a numbered, DOI-linked citation back to its source. Long syntheses are split into sequential part pages so that each part loads fast and is individually citable. Every page carries a date (first published) and a lastmod (last substantive revision) in its metadata and JSON-LD; when a source society issues a new or updated guideline, the affected series is revised and its lastmod advances. Each series is reviewed by a clinician before it publishes. The series for this department are forthcoming and will be linked from this index and from the Surgery & Trauma hub as they publish.

Frequently asked questions

What is in the surgery and trauma guideline index?

The professional-society guidelines that govern operative and injury care, each with publisher, current edition, scope, and a verified source: ATLS 11, the ACS Resources for Optimal Care of the Injured Patient 2022 standards, the ACS TQP best practices guidelines, the EAST practice management guidelines, the WSES Jerusalem guidelines on acute appendicitis, the Brain Trauma Foundation severe TBI guidelines, the ASHP/IDSA/SIS/SHEA surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis guideline, the CDC surgical site infection guideline, the SIS intra-abdominal infection guideline, the ERAS colorectal guideline, the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist, and the ACS Stop the Bleed program.

How are the site's guideline series built?

Each series is a multi-society synthesis. The relevant professional-society guidelines for a topic are read together, integrated into one clinical reference, and every substantive statement carries a numbered, DOI-linked citation back to its source. Long syntheses are split into sequential part pages, and every page carries a published date and a lastmod date.

When will the surgery and trauma series publish?

The series for this department are being written and reviewed. No date is promised. Each series will be linked from this index and from the department hub as it publishes.

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