**1. Introduction**

Trauma is among the leading causes of death across the globe [1, 2]. Yet despite the ubiquitous nature of this public health problem [3–5], our understanding of traumatic shock and the associated outcome determinants and markers continues to be incomplete at the increasingly granular, mechanistic level [6, 7]. For the purposes of this chapter, the term "traumatic shock" refers to any of the number of etiologies that would lead to shock in a trauma patient—most commonly seen is acute hemorrhage, but also other types of shock should also be mentioned, including neurogenic shock and possible late manifestations of obstructive shock and septic shock. There is a wealth of literature related to biomarkers and techniques used in identification of shock—including specifically sepsis and neurogenic shock—but there remains a paucity of studies specifically related to trauma patients.

The goal of this chapter is to provide an overview of the most commonly used endpoints of resuscitation in traumatic shock, beginning with clinical bedside assessments then progressing through various laboratory tests, and finally a discussion of other means of evaluation (e.g., sonography, novel biomarkers, and other miscellaneous approaches).
