Recent progress in the management and the treatment of acute and life-threatening conditions has resulted in many countries in a new clinical subspecialty: emergency medicine. Well-defined diagnostic strategies are of primordial importance in order to ensure optimal and fast global care of the acutely ill or multitrauma patient who enters the emergency department of the hospital. As in many other areas of modern medicine, radiological diagnosis and intervention play a key role in the correct handling of these patients and it is imperative that radiologists schould be well aware and well informed about all actual trends and concepts in this rapidly growing field.
