Polytrauma care in air rescue in times of the COVID-19 pandemic: impact and development of case numbers

Abstract

Changes in patient care occurred as aresult of the SARS-CoV‑2 virus, and both intrahospital and prehospital care were profoundly affected. Public shutdowns during lockdown periods were intended to prevent overstretching existing resources, resulting in noticeable changes in medical care for both elective treatments and emergency medicine. This study now considered the impact of the COVID19 pandemic on air ambulance services at acentral air ambulance site in 2020 compared to the previous 2years. Aretrospective evaluation of all missions of the rescue helicopter Christoph9 in the first COVID-19 pandemic year 2020 in comparison to the years 2018 and 2019 was performed. The mission logs were evaluated for the analysis. There was a20% reduction in the number of missions in 2020, with primarily internal medicine missions affected. Despite the lockdown periods and reduction in social life, the proportion of trauma deployments remained nearly the same. As expected, the proportion of occupational accidents decreased, and recreational activities resulted in accidents more frequently. Injury or illness severity showed no significant differences. In terms of internal diseases, there was areduction in alerts for acute coronary syndrome and respiratory emergencies. The proportion of suicide-related injuries remained constant over the years. During the COVID-19study period, adecrease in the number of deployments and aborted deployments was observed. However, no significant differences in deployment and injury characteristics were observed for trauma-related deployments. These results highlight the importance of air ambulance services to ensure patient care even during pandemic periods.