Patients In Prehospital Setting Research Articles

Abstract 405: Characteristics and Care of Pediatric Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest in the National Emergency Medical Services Information System

Background: Pediatric out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is an infrequent event with variations in clinical performance in the United States. Recent data on national incidence and treatments provided by Emergency Medical Services (EMS) clinicians during these events is unclear. We sought to characterize the incidence, medications, and procedures performed on children presenting with OHCA. Methods: We evaluated EMS responses in the US using 2021 National Emergency Medical Services Information System (NEMSIS) data. We included children (age ≥1 day - 17 years) with 9-1-1 responses. We identified OHCA events by those with reported: 1) cardiac arrest, 2) EMS resuscitation attempt, 3) EMS CPR performance, or 4) EMS defibrillation. We determined the incidence of pediatric out-of-hospital cardiac arrest among EMS responses and evaluated patient demographics (age, sex, race, location, urbanicity) and clinical interventions (medications, airway procedures). Results: Among 1.74 million pediatric 9-1-1 responses in 2021, we observed 13,040 OHCA events and an overall incidence of 7.6 per 1,000 pediatric 9-1-1 responses. For OHCA events, the median age was 3 years (IQR 0.33,14); 33% of events occurred in children less than one-year-old and 30% in adolescents aged 13-17. Most patients were male (58%) and events occurred mainly in urban settings (79%) and homes (63%). Of this population, 12% received defibrillation, 41% epinephrine, and 27% an advanced airway (endotracheal intubation or supraglottic airway). Conclusions: Pediatric OHCA incidence was low and followed a biphasic pattern by age. As expected in the pediatric population, defibrillation rates were low. One-quarter of patients received an advanced airway. Epinephrine, recommended for all cardiac arrests, was found to be administered in less than half of these events. Further studies are needed to evaluate barriers to optimal OHCA management in pediatric patients in prehospital settings.

Association between blood pressure recording in prehospital setting and patient outcome in pediatric trauma patients: A propensity score matching study.

Rapid identification of the severity of injuries in the field is important to ensure appropriate hospital care for better outcomes. Vital signs are used as a field triage tool for critically ill or injured patients in prehospital settings. Several studies have shown that recording vital signs, especially blood pressure, in pediatric patients is sometimes omitted in prehospital settings compared with that in adults. However, little is known about the association between the lack of measurement of prehospital vital signs and patient outcomes. In this study, we examined the association between the rate of vital sign measurements in the field and patient outcomes in injured children. This study analyzed secondary data from the Japan Trauma Data Bank. We included pediatric patients (0-17 years) with injuries who were transported by emergency medical services. Hospital survival was the primary outcome. We performed a propensity-matched analysis with nearest-neighbor matching without replacement by adjusting for demographic and clinical variables to evaluate the effect of recording vital signs. During the study period, 13,413 pediatric patients were included. There were 9,187 and 1,798 patients with and without prehospital blood pressure records, respectively. After matching, there were no differences in the patient characteristics or disease severity. Hospital mortality was significantly higher in the nonrecorded group than in the recorded group (4.3% vs. 1.1%; p < 0.001). The multiple logistic regression analysis results showed no prehospital record of blood pressure being associated with death (odds ratio [OR], 6.82; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.40-19.33). Glasgow Coma Scale score and Injury Severity Score were also associated with death (OR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.63-0.81 and OR, 1.10; 95% CI, 1.06-11.14, respectively). Pediatric patients without any blood pressure records in prehospital settings had higher mortality rates than those with prehospital blood pressure records. Therapeutic/Care Management; Level III.

Factors that influence the administration of tranexamic acid (TXA) to trauma patients in prehospital settings: a systematic review

ObjectiveIn the UK there are around 5400 deaths annually from injury. Tranexamic acid (TXA) prevents bleeding and has been shown to reduce trauma mortality. However, only 5% of UK major...

Accidental hypothermia and related risk factors among trauma patients in prehospital setting

INTRODUCTION: Hypothermia is highly prevalent among trauma patients. If hypothermia is diagnosed and managed early, complications from hypothermia can be reduced. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of accidental hypothermia and related factors in prehospital trauma patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This is a single-center prospective observational study. From 2 to 16 November 2018, 132 trauma patients were selected by convenience sampling. To collect data, the patient’s core body temperature (CBT) and the temperature of the ambulance cabin were measured as the patient left the ambulance. A combination of observation and emergency medical technician records was used to identify factors influencing hypothermia onset or exacerbation. SPSS 16 was used to analyze the data using descriptive statistics and multiple logistic regression. A significance level of 5% was considered. RESULTS: It was calculated that 44.1% of prehospital trauma patients had accidental hypothermia. The predicting variables for accidental hypothermia in trauma patients were found to be level of consciousness (OR = 2.19, p &lt; 0.049), pulse rate (OR = 1.04, p &lt; 0.02), and ambient cabin temperature (OR = 1.32, p &lt; 0.015). CONCLUSIONS: At the time of hospital admission, a significant number of trauma patients were hypothermic. This study emphasizes the need for identifying unintentional hypothermia in trauma patients early on during the pre-hospital stage.

Digit preference and biased conclusions in cardiac arrest studies

BackgroundIn cardiac arrest (CA), time is directly predictive of patients' prognosis. The increase in mortality resulting from delayed cardiopulmonary resuscitation has been quantified minute by minute. Times reported in CA management studies could reflect a timestamping bias referred to as “digit preference”. This phenomenon leads to a preference for certain numerical values (such as 2, 5, or 10) over others (such as 13).Our objective was to investigate whether or not digit preference phenomenon could be observed in reported times of the day related to CA management, as noted in a national registry. MethodsWe analyzed data from the French National Electronic Registry of Cardiac Arrests. We analyzed twelve times-of-the-day corresponding to each of the main steps of CA management reported by the emergency physicians who managed the patients in prehospital settings. We postulated that if CA occurred at random times throughout the day, then we could expect to see events related to CA management occurring at a similar rate each minute of each hour of the day, at a fraction of 1/60. We compared the fraction of times reported as multiples of 15 (0, 15, 30, and 45 – on the hour, quarters, half hour) with the expected fraction of 4/60 (i.e. 4 × 1/60). Main resultsA total of 47,211 times-of-the-day in relation to 6131 CA were analyzed. The most overrepresented numbers were: 0, with 3737 occurrences (8% vs 2% expected, p < 0.0001) and 30, with 2807 occurrences (6% vs 2% expected, p < 0.0001). Times-of-the-day as multiples of 15 were overrepresented (22% vs 7% expected, p < 0.0001). ConclusionProspectively collected times were considerably influenced by digit preference phenomenon. Studies that are not based on automatic time recordings and that have not evaluated and considered this bias should be interpretated with caution.

The accuracy of the National Early Warning Score 2 in predicting early death in prehospital and emergency department settings: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Many studies have explored the accuracy of the National Early Warning Score 2 (NEWS2) in predicting mortality in prehospital and emergency settings, but their findings are inconsistent. Whether NEWS2 is reliable for the pre-examination and triage of patients in prehospital settings and emergency departments remains debatable. Hence, this study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of NEWS2 in predicting mortality in prehospital settings and emergency departments. We searched PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, CNKI, Wan Fang Data, Vip Database and SinoMed from the inception of each database to January 2023. The inclusion criteria: (I) patients in the prehospital settings or emergency departments; (II) the NEWS2 for predicting 2-day mortality, 30-day mortality, and in-hospital mortality; (III) sufficient data, such as sensitivity, specificity, overall survival, and deaths, were provided for the study; (IV) the type of study was accuracy prediction study. Two authors independently extracted data, including authors, year of publication, country of origin, study design, sample size, threshold cutoff values of NEWS2, and mortality. The PROBAST was used to assess the risk of bias in the included studies. Thirty studies with 185,835 participants were included. Among the 30 included studies, 13 have a high risk of bias, and 17 have a low risk of bias. The pooled sensitivity, specificity and AUC of 2-day mortality (early mortality), 30-day mortality and in-hospital mortality were 0.81 vs. 0.76 vs. 0.72 (95% CI: 0.61, 0.80), 0.81 vs. 0.69 vs. 0.78 (95% CI: 0.49, 0.93) and 0.88 vs. 0.80 vs. 0.78 (95% CI: 0.74, 0.82), respectively. NEWS2 has excellent sensitivity and specificity in predicting early mortality in patients in the prehospitals setting and emergency departments. Nonetheless, it has poor performance in predicting in-hospital mortality and 30-day mortality. Our findings underpin the use of NEWS2 as a pre-examination and triage tool to predict early death in the prehospital settings and emergency departments. To improve the predictive accuracy, it should be used to monitor patients continuously rather than at a single point-in-time.

The association between age and vital signs documentation of trauma patients in prehospital settings: analysis of a nationwide database in Japan

BackgroundEmergency medical service (EMS) providers are the first medical professionals to make contact with patients in an emergency. However, the frequency of care by EMS providers for severely injured children is limited. Vital signs are important factors in assessing critically ill or injured patients in the prehospital setting. However, it has been reported that documentation of pediatric vital signs is sometimes omitted, and little is known regarding the performance rate of vital sign documentation by EMS providers in Japan. Using a nationwide data base in Japan, this study aimed to evaluate the relationship between patients’ age and the documentation of vital signs in prehospital settings.MethodsThis study was a secondary data analysis of the Japan Trauma Data Bank. The inclusion criterion was patients with severe trauma, as defined by an Injury Severity Score ≥ 16. Our primary outcome was the rate of recording all four basic vital signs, namely blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate, and level of consciousness in the prehospital setting among different age groups. We also compared the prehospital vital sign completion rate, that is, the rate at which all four vital signs were recorded in a prehospital setting based on age groups. Multivariate analysis was performed to evaluate factors associated with the prehospital vital sign completion rate.ResultsWe analyzed 75,777 severely injured patients. Adults accounted for 94% (71400) of these severely injured patients, whereas only 6% of patients were children. The rate of prehospital recording of vital signs was lower in children ≤5 years than in adult patients for all four vital signs. When the adult group was used as a reference, the adjusted odds ratios of vital sign completion rate in infants (0 years), younger children (1–5 years), older children (6–11 years), and teenagers (12–17 years) were 0.09, 0.30, 0.78, and 0.87, respectively.ConclusionsAnalysis of the nationwide trauma registry showed that younger children tended to have a lower rate of vital sign documentation in prehospital settings.

Machine Learning–Based Text Analysis to Predict Severely Injured Patients in Emergency Medical Dispatch: Model Development and Validation

BackgroundEarly recognition of severely injured patients in prehospital settings is of paramount importance for timely treatment and transportation of patients to further treatment facilities. The dispatching accuracy has seldom been addressed in previous studies.ObjectiveIn this study, we aimed to build a machine learning–based model through text mining of emergency calls for the automated identification of severely injured patients after a road accident.MethodsAudio recordings of road accidents in Taipei City, Taiwan, in 2018 were obtained and randomly sampled. Data on call transfers or non-Mandarin speeches were excluded. To predict cases of severe trauma identified on-site by emergency medical technicians, all included cases were evaluated by both humans (6 dispatchers) and a machine learning model, that is, a prehospital-activated major trauma (PAMT) model. The PAMT model was developed using term frequency–inverse document frequency, rule-based classification, and a Bernoulli naïve Bayes classifier. Repeated random subsampling cross-validation was applied to evaluate the robustness of the model. The prediction performance of dispatchers and the PAMT model, in severe cases, was compared. Performance was indicated by sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy.ResultsAlthough the mean sensitivity and negative predictive value obtained by the PAMT model were higher than those of dispatchers, they obtained higher mean specificity, positive predictive value, and accuracy. The mean accuracy of the PAMT model, from certainty level 0 (lowest certainty) to level 6 (highest certainty), was higher except for levels 5 and 6. The overall performances of the dispatchers and the PAMT model were similar; however, the PAMT model had higher accuracy in cases where the dispatchers were less certain of their judgments.ConclusionsA machine learning–based model, called the PAMT model, was developed to predict severe road accident trauma. The results of our study suggest that the accuracy of the PAMT model is not superior to that of the participating dispatchers; however, it may assist dispatchers when they lack confidence while making a judgment.

Validation of Score to Detect Intracranial Lesions in Unconscious Patients in Prehospital Setting

ObjectivesRecognizing stroke and other intracranial pathologies in prehospital phase facilitates prompt recanalization and other specific care. Recognizing these can be difficult in patients with decreased level of consciousness. We previously derived a scoring system combining systolic blood pressure, age and heart rate to recognize patients with intracranial pathology. In this study we aimed to validate the score in a larger, separate population. Materials and methodsWe conducted a register based retrospective study on patients ≥16 years old and Glasgow Coma Score <15 encountered by helicopter emergency medical services. Diagnoses at the end of hospitalization were used to identify if patients had intracranial lesion or not. The performance of score was evaluated by area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUROC). ResultsOf 9,309 patients included, 1,925 (20.7%) had an intracranial lesion including 1,211 cases of stroke. Older age, higher blood pressure and lower heart rate were predictors for an intracranial lesion (P<0.001 for all). The score distinguished patients with intracranial lesion with AUROC of 0.749 (95% CI 0.737 to 0.761). The performance slightly improved if only patients intubated in prehospital phase were included AUROC 0.780 (95% CI 0.770 to 0.806) or convulsion related diagnosis excluded AUROC of 0.788 (95% CI 0.768 to 0.792). ConclusionsA scoring of systolic blood pressure, heart rate and age help differentiate intracranial lesions in patients with decreased level of consciousness in prehospital care. This may facilitate direct transportation to stroke center and application of neuroprotective measures in prehospital critical care.

Differences in the thermal properties and surface temperature of prehospital antihypothermia devices: an in vitro study

BackgroundPreventing and treating hypothermia in prehospital settings is crucial. Several products have been developed to prevent heat loss and actively warm patients in prehospital settings. We compared the efficacy and...

Pre-hospital portable monitoring of cerebral regional oxygen saturation (rSO2) by ambulance personnel during cardiopulmonary resuscitation: A prospective observational analysis of 87 cases in Osaka city, Japan

BackgroundRegional cerebral oxygen saturation (rSO2) is a non-invasive method of measuring cerebral perfusion; However, serial changes in cerebral rSO2 values among out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) patients in pre-hospital settings have not been sufficiently investigated. We aimed to investigate the association between the serial change in rSO2 pattern and patient outcome. MethodsWe evaluated rSO2 in OHCA patients using portable monitoring by emergency life-saving technicians (ELTs) from June 2013 to December 2019 in Osaka City, Japan. We divided the patterns of serial of rSO2 change into type 1 (increasing pattern) and type 2 (non-increasing pattern). Patients in whom measurement started after return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) were excluded. The outcome measures were ‘Prehospital ROSC’, ‘Alive at admission’, ‘1-month survival’ and ‘Cerebral Performance Category (CPC) 1 or 2′. ResultsEighty-seven patients were eligible for this analysis (type 1: n=40, median age: 80.5 [IQR: 72–85.5] years, male: n=20 [50.0%]; type 2: n=47, 81 [72–85.5] years, male: n=28 [59.6%]). In a multivariable logistic regression adjusted for confounding factors, outcomes of ‘Prehospital ROSC’ and ‘Alive at admission’ were significantly higher in type 1 than type 2 pattern (11/40 [27.5%] vs. 2/47 [4.26%], AOR 5.67, 95% CI 1.04–30.96, p<0.045 and 17/40 [42.5%] vs. 6/41 [12.8%], AOR 3.56, 95% CI 1.11–11.43, p<0.033). There was no significant difference in ‘1-month survival’ and ‘CPC 1 or 2′ between patterns. ConclusionType 1 (increasing pattern) was associated with ‘Prehospital ROSC’ and ‘Alive at admission’. Pre-hospital monitoring of cerebral rSO2 might lead to a new resuscitation strategy.

Planning Development Level of Evidence Pain Management in Pre-hospital Emergency Department: A Systematic Review

Introduction: Regarding pre-hospital pain management focus on the emergency department, safety of analgesics used is one of the concerned areas to be developed clearly. However, the current level of evidence in pre-hospital pain management of injured patients, focusing on the safety and effect of pre-hospital analgesia has not been explored. The aim of this study was to analyze the level of evidence in pre-hospital pain management of injured patients, focusing on the safety and effect of pre-hospital analgesia. Methods: A systematic review was performed in this study with inclusion criteria adult-elderly injured patients in pre-hospital setting and used analgesic agents. Articles were sourced from electronic database Scopus, PubMed, Science Direct, Springer Link and ProQuest, which were searched to identify all the relevant articles published over the last five years in English. Fifteen studies were included are qualified as articles assessment with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses checklist. Results: Nine studies were Randomized Control Trial, two studies cross-sectional and retrospective, and one study prospective descriptive and cohort. The result showed that many types of analgesic are used or planned in emergency areas, such as morphine, ketamine, fentanyl, NSAID with different route intravenous, intramuscular and subcutaneous with safety and monitoring continuously by healthcare professionals. Conclusion: The use of pre-hospital analgesia for injured patient in pre-hospital setting is commonly used by health workers according to pain management standard and guidelines; planning developments are needed for safety and management as a concern for focus on quality of pain management status.

A report on the experience of using ultrasound by emergency medical technicians in dealing with trauma patients in pre-hospital setting: a pilot study

Objective: The current study was performed to provide real-time bedside ultrasonography for emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and assess the advantages and disadvantages of its application in dealing with trauma patients in pre-hospital setting from their viewpoints. Methods: This semi-experimental study was conducted in Tehran, Iran. Twenty EMTs were selected purposefully and underwent a training program. Thereafter, they were asked to perform extended focused assessment with sonography in trauma (eFAST) using a handheld ultrasound device on trauma patients, and also filled a questionnaire prepared (in four components including C1: coherence, C2: cognitive participation, C3: collective action, and C4: reflexive monitoring) based on the normalization process theory (NPT). Results: All 20 participants were men and their average age was 37.8 years (SD = 4.7). For C1, the median total score was 10.5 out of a score of 4-20; For C2, the median score was 6 out of 3-15; For C3, the median total score was 18 out of a score of 6-30; and for C4, the median total score was 11 out of a score of 5-25. Conclusion: Overall, it seems that EMTs welcomed using ultrasonography in dealing with trauma patients in pre-hospital setting. Although they thought that it might somewhat lead to an increase in their workload; but they believed that sufficient training was not provided for them yet. The EMTs were uncertain about the viewpoints of the patients and did not know how it could affect patients’ outcome.

Shock Index as a Marker for Mortality Rates in Those Admitted to the Medical Intensive Care Unit from the Emergency Department.

ObjectiveShock index (SI) is defined as the heart rate divided by systolic blood pressure. Studies have shown a correlation between the shock index and mortality in trauma patients in prehospital settings and in the emergency department (ED). The objective of this study was to identify the utility of SI in predicting mortality in the medical intensive care unit (MICU) patients admitted from the ED and transfers from the floor to MICU. DesignWe performed a retrospective analysis of adult patients admitted to the MICU at our urban trauma hospital between January 2015 through August 2015 using ED vital signs to calculate the shock index and identify inpatient deaths. Similar data were examined for inpatient transfers to the MICU.ResultsNine hundred and fifty patients were included in the study; 743 had an SI ≤ 0.99 with a mortality rate of 15.9%. Two hundred and seven patients had a SI ≥ 1.00 with a mortality rate of 22.7%. A higher SI was significant for mortality. There was no statistical significance in SI and mortality rate for patients transferred from the medical floor to the ICU.ConclusionsPatients with an SI ≥ 1.00 from initial ED vital signs correlated with a higher mortality rate. In patients transferred from the floor to MICU, SI ≥ 1.00 did not correlate with a higher mortality rate.

Design and validation of prehospital acute stroke triage (PAST) scale to predict large vessel occlusion

Background and aimsAcute ischemic stroke patients with large vessel occlusion (LVO) have severe symptoms and poor prognosis. Early recognition of these patients in prehospital setting contributes to rapid triage to comprehensive stroke centers with endovascular therapy conditions. We aimed to develop a simple and efficient scale to identify LVO and compare with other published scales. MethodsMedical records of acute ischemic stroke patients within 24 h of stroke onset at Beijing Tiantan hospital were retrospectively collected. The Prehospital Acute Stroke Triage (PAST) scale was designed based on the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) items with higher predictive values for LVO. Receiver operating characteristics curves were used to determine and compare the discriminative ability of each scale. ResultsA total of 1313 patients diagnosed with acute ischemic stroke were included in this study. Half of the patients were used to design and the other were used to validate the PAST scale. The PAST scale showed a comparable predictive ability to NIHSS to detect LVO (c-statistics, 0.8607 vs 0.8715, p = 0.1889). A FAST scale ≥2 showed sensitivity of 0.85209, specificity of 0.76301 and accuracy of 0.80518. The PAST scale also showed good performance in subgroup analysis based on the time of onset, infarct location and the type of vascular examination. ConclusionsPAST scale is relatively simple and has comparable ability to more complex NIHSS for recognizing large vessel occlusion.

Gender disparities in the application of public-access AED pads among OHCA patients in public locations

BackgroundFemale out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) patients have been reported to be less likely to receive cardiopulmonary resuscitation by bystanders compared with male patients in prehospital settings. However, no clinical studies have investigated gender disparities in the application of public-access automated external defibrillator (AED) pads among OHCA patients in public locations. MethodsOHCA data from 2011 to 2018 were obtained from the OHCA registry in Osaka City, Japan and OHCAs that occurred in public locations were included. Gender differences in receiving public-access AED pad application by bystanders were assessed according to the age of the OHCA patient (<15, 15–49, 50–74, and ≥75 years) after controlling confounders. ResultsThe analysis included 4358 OHCA patients (3313 male and 1045 female patients). The multivariable logistic regression analyses found no significant gender differences in the likelihood of public-access AED pad application among patients aged <15 years (5.3% in male patients vs 6.3% in female patients; adjusted OR = 1.00, p = 1.000), 50–74 years (16.8% vs 12.7%; adjusted OR = 0.96, p = 0.796), and ≥75 years (12.3% vs 14.8%; adjusted OR = 1.45, p = 0.098). In contrast, among patients aged 15–49 years, female patients were significantly less likely to receive public-access AED pad application compared with male patients (12.1% vs 5.2%; adjusted OR = 0.54, p = 0.032). ConclusionIn this population, female OHCA patients of reproductive age (15–49 years) were less likely to receive public-access AED pad application compared with male patients of the same age group.

Association of prehospital oxygen administration and mortality in severe trauma patients (PROMIS): A nationwide cohort study.

Until now, we routinely administered oxygen to trauma patients in prehospital settings irrespective of whether oxygen delivery affected the prognosis. To determine the necessity of prehospital oxygen administration (POA) to trauma patients, we aimed to assess whether POA contributed to in-hospital mortality.This was a multicenter propensity-matched cohort study involving 172 major emergency hospitals in Japan. During 2004 to 2010, 70,683 patients with trauma aged ≥15 years were eligible for enrolment. The main outcome measures were survival until hospital discharge after POA, and propensity score analyses were used to adjust for patient factors and hospital site.Of 32,225 trauma patients, 19,985 (62.0%) were administered oxygen by the emergency medical services in prehospital settings and 12,240 (38.0%) did not receive oxygen. Overall, 29,555 patients (90.7%) survived till hospital discharge. In the multivariable unconditional logistic regression, POA had an odds ratio (OR) of 0.33 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.30–0.37; P <.001) for favorable in-hospital mortality. Furthermore, there were significant differences in all the important variables between the POA and no POA groups (P <.001); therefore, we used propensity score matching analysis. After adjustment for the covariates of selected variables, we found that POA was not associated with a higher rate of survival after hospitalization (adjusted OR, 1.02; 95% CI, 0.99–1.04; P = .27). Even after adjustment for all covariates, POA did not improve in-hospital mortality (adjusted OR, 1.01; 95% CI, 0.99–1.03; P = .08).In this study, POA did not improve in-hospital mortality in trauma patients. However, further studies are needed to validate our results.

Efficacy of Cervical Immobilization in Multiple Trauma Patients

Immobilization is one of the most used procedures to prevent spinal cord injury in multiple trauma patients in prehospital setting. However, its protocolary use has historical principles rather than a scientific origin. Although this technique restricts the movement of the injured spine, there is no evidence supporting its use in all patients suffering from trauma.

Consensus on resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the Aorta: A first consensus paper using a Delphi method

BackgroundTo further strengthen the evidence base on the use of Resuscitative Endovascular Balloon occlusion of the Aorta (REBOA) we performed a Delphi consensus. The aim of this paper is to establish consensus on the indications and contraindications for the use of REBOA in trauma and non-trauma patients based on the existing evidence and expertise. Study DesignA literature review facilitated the design of a three-round Delphi questionnaire. Delphi panelists were identified by the investigators. Consensus was reached when at least 70% of the panelists responded to the survey and more than 70% of respondents reached agreement or disagreement. ResultsPanel members reached consensus on potential indications, contra-indications and settings for use of REBOA (excluding the pre hospital environment), physiological parameters for patient selection and indications for early femoral access. Panel members failed to reach consensus on the use of REBOA in patients in extremis (no pulse, no blood pressure) and the use of REBOA in patients with two major bleeding sites. ConclusionsConsensus was reached on indications, contra indications, physiological parameters for patient selection for REBOA and early femoral access. The panel did not reach consensus on the use of REBOA in patients in pre-hospital settings, patients in extremis (no pulse, no blood pressure) and in patients with 2 or more major bleeding sites. Further research should focus on the indications of REBOA in pre hospital settings, patients in near cardiac arrest and REBOA inflation times.

Early diagnosis of traumatic intracranial hematomas.

.Timing of the intervention for intracranial hematomas is critical for its success, specifically since expansion of the hemorrhage can result in debilitating and sometimes fatal outcomes. Led by Britton Chance, we and an extended team from University of Pennsylvania, Baylor and Drexel universities developed a handheld brain hematoma detector for early triage and diagnosis of head trauma victims. After obtaining de novo Food and Drug Administration clearance, over 200 systems are deployed in all Marine battalion aid stations around the world. Infrascanner, a handheld brain hematoma detection system, is based on the differential near-infrared light absorption of the injured versus the noninjured part of brain. About 12 independent studies have been conducted in the USA, Canada, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Russia, Poland, Afghanistan, India, China, and Turkey. Here, we outline the background and design of the device as well as clinical studies with a total of 1293 patients and 203 hematomas. Infrascanner demonstrates high sensitivity (adults: 92.5% and children: 93%) and specificity (adults: 82.9% and children: 86.5%) in detecting intracranial hematomas in volume and from the surface of the brain. Infrascanner is a clinically effective screening solution for head trauma patients in prehospital settings where timely triage is critical.