PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Neil Eisenstein
AU  - David Naumann
AU  - Daniel Burns
AU  - Sarah Stapley
AU  - Heather Draper
TI  - Left Of Bang Interventions in Trauma: ethical implications for military medical prophylaxis
AID  - 10.1136/medethics-2017-104299
DP  - 2018 Jul 01
TA  - Journal of Medical Ethics
PG  - 504--508
VI  - 44
IP  - 7
4099  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/44/7/504.short
4100  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/44/7/504.full
SO  - J Med Ethics2018 Jul 01; 44
AB  - Advances in medical capability should be accompanied by discussion of their ethical implications. In the military medical context there is a growing interest in developing prophylactic interventions that will mitigate the effects of trauma and improve survival. The ethics of this novel capability are currently unexplored. This paper describes the concept of trauma prophylaxis (Left Of Bang Interventions in Trauma) and outlines some of the ethical issues that need to be considered, including within concept development, research and implementation. Trauma prophylaxis can be divided into interventions that do not (type 1) and those that do (type 2) have medical enhancement as an unintended side effect of their prophylactic action. We conclude that type 1 interventions have much in common with established military medical prophylaxis, and the potentially enhancing qualities of type 2 interventions raise different issues. We welcome further debate on both interventions.