PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Indumathy Santhanam AU - Prinetha Moodley AU - Balaji Jayaraman AU - Adriana Yock-Corrales AU - Baljit Cheema AU - Simon Craig AU - Haiko Kurt Jahn TI - Triage and resuscitation tools for low and middle income countries: how to catch the killer? AID - 10.1136/archdischild-2021-321981 DP - 2022 Feb 01 TA - Archives of disease in childhood - Education & practice edition PG - 71--76 VI - 107 IP - 1 4099 - http://ep.bmj.com/content/107/1/71.short 4100 - http://ep.bmj.com/content/107/1/71.full SO - Arch Dis Child Educ Pract Ed2022 Feb 01; 107 AB - Under-5 mortality rates in low and middle-income countries (LMIC) remain high. One major contributing factor is the failure to recognise critically unwell children when they first present to hospital. This leads to delayed or inadequate resuscitation and an increased risk of death.Triage is a key skill in this setting to sort the queue and prioritise patients, even when staff and equipment are scarce. In LMIC, children generally present late in their illness and often have progressed to some degree of multiorgan dysfunction.Following triage, a structured systematic primary survey is critical to ensure the detection of subtle signs of multiorgan dysfunction. Repeated physiological assessments of the child guide subsequent resuscitation management decisions, which depend somewhat on the resources available.It is possible to achieve significant improvements in survival of critically unwell children presenting for emergency care in the resource-limited setting. The three key steps in the patient’s journey that we can influence in emergency care are triage, primary survey and initial stabilisation. Resources that address these steps have been developed for all settings. However, these resources were developed in a specific clinical context, and must therefore be adapted to local structures and processes. A systematic approach to triage and resuscitation saves lives.