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Emergency Medicine & First Aid vocabulary · Emergency Assessment (ABC)

ABC

Meaning in emergency medicine & first aid, with examples

/ˌeɪ biː ˈsiː/abbreviationCore term

In emergency medicine & first aid, ABC means: Short for airway, breathing, circulation: the order in which a rescuer checks for the most urgent problems in a sick or injured person.

In Turkish: ABC, hava yolu, solunum, dolaşım

How it is used

Taught on almost every first aid and emergency course. Clinicians often extend it to ABCDE, adding disability (brain function) and exposure (looking at the whole body). Some guidelines put circulation first in cardiac arrest (CAB), and trauma teams may start with catastrophic bleeding (<C>ABC).

Example sentences

  1. Go through your ABC before you worry about his broken wrist.

  2. On the ABC check, his airway was clear but he was breathing fast.

Common collocations

  • ABC approach
  • ABCDE assessment
  • go through the ABC
  • ABC check
  • airwayThe passage that air travels through from the nose and mouth to the lungs; in emergencies, the question is whether it is open or blocked.
  • primary surveyA fast, structured first check of a patient, usually in the ABCDE order, to find and deal with life-threatening problems.
  • pulseThe regular beat of the heart that you can feel where an artery is close to the skin, such as at the wrist or the side of the neck.
  • AVPUA quick scale for level of consciousness: the patient is Alert, responds to Voice, responds to Pain, or is Unresponsive.

More terms: Emergency Assessment (ABC)

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This page explains English vocabulary for learners. It is not medical advice.