Trauma and its morbidity and mortality is a leading public health problem. Since the 1980s, multiple changes have been introduced to the resuscitation of trauma patients, attempting to reduce early morta-lity, mainly due to hemorrhagic shock. This is how damage control resuscitation arises, a concept that involves treating the trauma patient with a physiological point of view, correcting acidosis, hypocalcemia, hypothermia, and coagulopathy, in addition to emphasizing the resolution of complex problems through simple surgical procedures. This article describes the fundamental concepts of damage control resuscitation that every general surgeon should understand and implement when facing a patient with severe trauma.