Conclusions
non-traumatic haemorrhage
Obviously, these patients are in extremis and the situation is complex. With all the abovementioned limitations, we believe that it is wrong to solely credit (or discredit) REBOA for the results. To successfully salvage the critically injured patient, we need to improve the sum of marginal gains. Short prehospital time and procedural competence are two obvious factors of importance. In the UK-REBOA trial most patients did not receive a definitive haemorrhagic controlling procedure and exsanguinated. Hence, we think that the UK-REBOA trial does not describe the true effect of REBOA. We still consider REBOA as a potential bridge to therapy, but emphasize that it is important to avoid delay in time to definitive surgery [Additionally, this harmonizes with our comment published earlier [In summary, we do not think this is the end of balloons. We salute the investigators for their efforts and challenge others to assess REBOA in non-traumatic haemorrhage.