Specialities

Emergency medicine brings together medical and surgical techniques to meet a vital emergency, i.e. a situation in which there is a risk of the patient dying or suffering irreversible consequences within a short timescale if he/she does not receive care.

The concept of a "short timescale" is very relative. In acute cases there are only a few minutes in which to act, but generally in France an emergency is considered to have a relevant risk time of 6 to 12 hours.
(In Canada and the United States, a definition focussed on the needs of the patient is used instead. So an emergency is defined as any perception of an emergency situation which could risk putting his/her survival or the conservation of a limb in danger.)