OBJECTIVE The optimal staffing of helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) is uncertain. An intensive care paramedic-staffed HEMS has operated in the state of Victoria, Australia for over 28 years, with paramedics capable of performing advanced procedures, including rapid sequence intubation, decompression of tension pneumothorax, and cricothyroidotomy. Administration of a wide range of vas...

A total of 100 accident and emergency (A&E) departments in the UK responded to a questionnaire about their use of the pneumatic anti-shock garment (PASG). Less than one in 10 departments used PASG in their prehospital care system, less than one in five departments used PASG during in-patient care, and there was wide variation in PASG usage in those situations for which their use is recommended ...

BACKGROUND Prehospital care of combat casualties is a critical phase of emergency medical practice on the battlefield. The Joint Theater Trauma Registry (JTTR) was developed to standardize a system of data collection for combat casualty care; however, the degree of population and granularity of prehospital data were unknown. METHODS This is a retrospective comparative study of all US military...

background: fractures of femur are among the most important causes of mortality in musculoskeletal injuries. owning to lack of adequate research to compare various techniques of fracture stabilization, there has not yet been an agreement over a protocol to utilize a specific type of splint for femoral fracture immobilization. this study was thus conducted to compare the effects of simple and tr...

OBJECTIVE To understand the degree to which the trauma care guidelines released by the World Health Organization (WHO) between 2004 and 2009 have been used, and to identify priorities for the future implementation and dissemination of such guidelines. METHODS We conducted a systematic review, across 19 databases, in which the titles of the three sets of guidelines - Guidelines for essential t...

Spine immobilization in trauma patients suspected of having a spinal injury has been a cornerstone of prehospital treatment for decades. Current practices are based on the belief that a patient with an injured spinal column can deteriorate neurologically without immobilization. Most treatment protocols do not differentiate between blunt and penetrating mechanisms of injury. Current Emergency Me...

As trauma is the leading cause of death for persons 1 to 24 years in Japan, the trauma system must be established to save lives and to reduce serious sequelae. However, the trauma system has not been evaluated since 2000. In May 2002, it revealed that the deaths of about 40% of expired trauma patients who arrived at emergency centers with some vital signs were probably preventable. This result ...

OBJECTIVE To examine the severity of trauma in entrapped victims and to identify risk factors for mortality and morbidity. INTRODUCTION Triage and rapid assessment of trauma severity is essential to provide the needed resources during prehospital and hospital phases and for outcome prediction. It is expected that entrapped victims will have greater severity of trauma and mortality than non-en...

OBJECTIVES The objectives were to conduct a comprehensive, systematic review of the literature for risk adjustment measures (RAMs) and outcome measures (OMs) for prehospital trauma research and to use a structured expert panel process to recommend measures for use in future emergency medical services (EMS) trauma outcomes research. METHODS A systematic literature search and review was perform...