Epidemiology of trauma patients attended by ambulance paramedics in Perth, Western Australia

Epidemiology of patients assessed for trauma by Swedish ambulance services: a retrospective registry study

BACKGROUND

There is a lack of knowledge regarding the epidemiology of severe trauma assessed by Swedish emergency medical services (EMS).

AIM

To investigate the prevalence of trauma in Sweden assessed by EMS from a national perspective and describe patient demography, aetiology, trauma type, prehospital triage and clinical outcomes.

METHODS

Data from two national quality registries, the Swedish Ambulance Registry and the Swedish Trauma Registry (SweTrau) were collected from January 1 to December 31, 2019. Inclusion criteria were an Emergency Symptoms and Signs code equivalent to trauma in the Swedish Ambulance Registry and criteria fulfilled for SweTrau inclusion. Exclusion criteria were patients < 18 years old, those not transported to a hospital and those without a personal identification number.

RESULTS

In total, 53,120 patients with trauma were included (14% of primary EMS missions involving a personal identification number). Of those, 2,278 (4.3%) patients (median age: 45 years; 32% women) were reported in SweTrau to have severe or potentially severe trauma (penetrating: 7%, blunt: 93%). In terms of including all causes of trauma, the code for 'trauma alert activation' was most frequent (55%). The most frequent injury mechanism was an injury caused by a car (34%). Most (89%) cases were assigned Priority 1 (life-threatening condition) at the dispatch centre. 62% were regarded as potentially life threatening upon EMS arrival, whereas 29% were assessed as non-life-threatening. Overall, 25% of the patients had new injury severity scores > 15. 12% required invasive treatment, 11% were discharged with severe disability and the 30-day mortality rate was 3.6%.

CONCLUSION

In this cross-sectional study, 14% of the primary EMS missions for one year were caused by trauma. However, only a small proportion of these cases are severe injuries, and the risk of severe disabilities and death appears to be limited. The most frequent aetiology of a severe trauma is injury caused by a car, and most severe traumas are blunt. Severe traumas are given the highest priority at the dispatch centre in the vast majority of cases, but nearly one-third of these cases are considered a low priority by the EMS nurse. The latter leaves room for improvement.

The Use of Prehospital Intensive Care Units in Emergencies-A Scoping Review

BACKGROUND

Amidst a rising tide of trauma-related emergencies, emergency departments worldwide grapple with the challenges of overcrowding and prolonged patient wait times. Addressing these challenges, the integration of prehospital intensive care units has appeared as a promising solution, streamlining trauma care and enhancing patient safety. Nevertheless, the feasibility of such an initiative becomes murky when considered globally. This review delves into the intricacies of prehospital intensive care units' deployment for trauma care, scrutinizing their configurations, operational practices, and the inherent challenges and research priorities.

METHODS

A scoping review was performed for eligible studies. The result was uploaded to the RAYYAN research platform, facilitating simultaneous evaluation of the studies by all researchers.

RESULTS

A total of 42 studies were initially selected. Four studies were duplicates, and 25 studies were unanimously removed as irrelevant. The remaining studies (n = 13) were included in the review, and the outcomes were categorized into diverse subgroups.

CONCLUSIONS

A country's emergency medical services must achieve specific milestones in education, competency, resource availability, and performance to effectively harness the potential of a prehospital intensive care unit. While certain nations are equipped, others lag, highlighting a global disparity in readiness for such advanced care modalities.

A predictive ambulance dispatch algorithm to the scene of a motor vehicle crash: the search for optimal over and under triage rates

Background

Calls for emergency medical assistance at the scene of a motor vehicle crash (MVC) substantially contribute to the demand on ambulance services. Triage by emergency medical dispatch systems is therefore important, to ensure the right care is provided to the right patient, in the right amount of time. A lights and sirens (L&S) response is the highest priority ambulance response, also known as a priority one or hot response. In this context, over triage is defined as dispatching an ambulance with lights and sirens (L&S) to a low acuity MVC and under triage is not dispatching an ambulance with L&S to those who require urgent medical care. We explored the potential for crash characteristics to be used during emergency ambulance calls to identify those MVCs that required a L&S response.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective cohort study using ambulance and police data from 2014 to 2016. The predictor variables were crash characteristics (e.g. road surface), and Medical Priority Dispatch System (MPDS) dispatch codes. The outcome variable was the need for a L&S ambulance response. A Chi-square Automatic Interaction Detector technique was used to develop decision trees, with over/under triage rates determined for each tree. The model with an under/over triage rate closest to that prescribed by the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma (ACS COT) will be deemed to be the best model (under triage rate of ≤ 5% and over triage rate of between 25–35%.

Results

The decision tree with a 2.7% under triage rate was closest to that specified by the ACS COT, had as predictors—MPDS codes, trapped, vulnerable road user, anyone aged 75 + , day of the week, single versus multiple vehicles, airbag deployment, atmosphere, surface, lighting and accident type. This model had an over triage rate of 84.8%.

Conclusions

We were able to derive a model with a reasonable under triage rate, however this model also had a high over triage rate. Individual EMS may apply the findings here to their own jurisdictions when dispatching to the scene of a MVC.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12873-022-00609-5.

Older age is associated with a reduced likelihood of ambulance transport to a trauma centre after major trauma in Perth

OBJECTIVE

To describe the characteristics and outcomes of older adult (≥65 years) major trauma patients in comparison with younger adults (16-64 years). To determine whether older age is associated with a reduced likelihood of transport (directly or indirectly) to a major trauma centre and whether this is associated with in-hospital mortality.

METHODS

A retrospective cohort study of major trauma patients transported to hospital by St John Ambulance paramedics in Perth, Western Australia, between 1 January 2013 and 31 December 2016. Multivariate logistic regression was used to test the relationship between age and major trauma centre transport. Multivariate logistic regression analysis using inverse probability of treatment weighting was used to determine if major trauma centre transport was associated with in-hospital mortality in older adults.

RESULTS

One thousand six hundred and twenty-five patients were included; of these 576 (35%) were ≥65 years. In comparison with younger adults, older adults had more falls as their mechanism of injury (n = 358 [62%] versus n = 102 [10%], P ≤ 0.001) and more major head injuries (n = 472 [82%] versus n = 609 [58%], P ≤ 0.001). Older adults had lower odds (adjusted odds ratio 0.52, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.35-0.78) of major trauma centre transport and this was associated with 1.7 times the likelihood of in-hospital mortality (95% CI 1.04-2.7).

CONCLUSIONS

Older adults who were not transported to the trauma centre had an increased odds of in-hospital mortality. However, older age was associated with a significantly reduced likelihood of trauma centre transport. With the aging population, the development of specific prehospital triage criteria to enable the complexities of this higher-risk population to be identified is important.