Prehospital and Disaster Medicine

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INTRODUCTION: Terrorist attacks against hospitals and health care providers have disproportionally increased during the last decades. A significant proportion of these attacks targeted abortion clinics and abortion providers. In the light of the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, an increase of anti-abortion terrorist attacks is anticipated. Therefore, it becomes imperative to gain further insight into the risk and characteristics of past terrorist attacks. This study aimed to review terrorist attacks against health care targets providing abortion services from 1970 through 2020...

INTRODUCTION: Foreign body airway obstruction (FBAO) is a life-threatening emergency, and the prognosis of patients with FBAO is greatly affected by the prehospital process. There are only a few large-scale studies analyzing prehospital process databases of the fire department. STUDY OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate whether characteristics of patients with FBAO were associated with prehospital factors and outcomes. METHODS: In this retrospective observational study, patients transferred to the hospital by the Tokyo, Japan Fire Department for FBAO from 2017 through 2019 were included...

INTRODUCTION: Sports venues foster community and support local economies. Due to their capacity to host hundreds to thousands of spectators, sports venues are vulnerable to becoming targets of terrorism. Types of venues targeted, regional trends, and methods of attack employed world-wide have not been well-described. METHODS: A search of the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) was conducted from 1970 through the end of 2019. Pre-coded variables for target type "business" and target subtype "entertainment/cultural/stadium/casino" were used to identify attacks involving venues where sports events might be viewed by spectators as part of an audience...

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to establish the frequency and profile of disasters and to analyze trends in disasters and their impact on Spanish public health. METHODS: Retrospective observational study of disasters that occurred in Spain from 1950 through 2020 was conducted. The variables studied for each episode were number of people affected, number of injured/sick, and number of deaths. Absolute and relative frequencies, population rates, mean, median, standard error of the mean (SEM), and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were used, and trend analysis was performed using exponential smoothing and linear regression...

INTRODUCTION: Proximal femoral fractures are characterized as one of the most common and most painful injuries sustained by patients of all ages and are associated with high rates of oligoanalgesia in the prehospital setting. Current treatments include oral and parenteral opiates and sedative agents, however regional anesthesia techniques for pain relief may provide superior analgesia with lower risk of side effects during patient transportation. The fascia iliaca compartment block (FICB) is an inexpensive treatment which is performed with minimal additional equipment, ultimately making it suitable in prehospital settings...

INTRODUCTION: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has dramatically changed the epidemiology of several diseases. Much evidence on this has been published in the pandemic phase. In addition, many studies have shown that phenomena such as stress, substance abuse, and burnout increased in the general population during the lockdown. Unfortunately, few studies analyze the post-pandemic phase. STUDY OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to evaluate the trend of broad social problems, such as a diagnosis by the emergency department (ED), in the post-pandemic phase in the Lombardy (Italy) region...

BACKGROUND: After officer-involved shootings (OIS), rapid delivery of emergency medical care is critical but may be delayed due to scene safety concerns. The purpose of this study was to describe medical care rendered by law enforcement officers (LEOs) after lethal force incidents. METHODS: Retrospective analysis of open-source video footage of OIS occurring from February 15, 2013 through December 31, 2020. Frequency and nature of care provided, time until LEO and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) care, and mortality outcomes were evaluated...

INTRODUCTION: The aim of this systematic review was to collect evidence and recommendations for the applicability of the concept of evidence-based policy making (EBPM) during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and to discuss the implementation of this concept from a medical science perspective. METHODS: This study was performed according to the guidelines, checklist, and flow diagram of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) 2020...

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INTRODUCTION: In many low-income countries, basic prehospital Emergency Medical Services (EMS) remain under-developed, resulting in significant delays or the complete inability to access care. STUDY OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to analyze the effectiveness of a layperson EMS training targeting motorcycle taxi (boda) drivers in a rural region of Uganda. METHODS: Fifty (50) adult boda drivers from Masindi, Uganda were selected for a one-day training course including lectures and simulation...

INTRODUCTION: Many Emergency Medical Service (EMS) systems in the United States restrict albuterol therapy by scope of practice to Advanced Life Support (ALS). The State of Delaware has a two-tiered EMS system in which Basic Life Support (BLS) arrives on scene prior to ALS in the majority of respiratory distress calls. STUDY OBJECTIVE: This study sought to evaluate the safety, efficacy, and expedience of albuterol administration by BLS compared to ALS. METHODS: This retrospective observational study used data collected from July 2015 through January 2017 throughout a State BLS albuterol pilot program...

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BACKGROUND: In recent decades, an increasing number of terrorist attacks have been carried out against medical institutions, hospitals, and health care workers. These attacks, that often result in high numbers of casualties and impaired access to health services, have a more significant impact on people's sense of security than attacks against military and police targets. Attacks on ambulances - especially on the African continent - have been sparsely studied. This study examines attacks on ambulances on the African continent during the period from 1992-2022 (until December 31, 2021)...

INTRODUCTION: The extrication from rubble is particularly critical for the survival of the victims of an earthquake. Early repeated infusion of sedative agents (SAs) in the acute trauma phase may interfere with neural processes leading to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). STUDY OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to analyze the psychological status reported by the buried victims of the earthquake in Amatrice (August 24, 2016; Italy) by considering type of the SAs administered during the extrication maneuvers...

STUDY OBJECTIVE: Web-based big data analytics provides a great opportunity to measure public interest in cardiac arrest (CA) and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). This study aimed to examine associations of online interest in CPR and CA with epidemiological characteristics of out-of-hospital CA (OHCA) and national socioeconomic indicators in a set of European countries. METHODS: Country-level online search popularity data for CPR and CA topics measured in relative search volume (RSV) with Google Trends (GT), published OHCA epidemiological indicators, and World Bank's socioeconomic statistics of 28 European countries for the year 2017 were analyzed for correlation using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient ( r S )...

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INTRODUCTION: Currently, many airplanes and helicopters are used as air ambulances to transport high-acuity patients. Unfortunately, civilian air medical transport in the United States has experienced a significant number of serious and fatal accidents. At the moment, additional research is needed to identify what factors affect air medical safety. METHODS: Accident reports from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) were queried. Accident reports were analyzed if the accident occurred from 2000 through 2020, involved a helicopter or airplane on an air medical flight (as identified by the NTSB), and had at least one fatality...

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No abstract text is available yet for this article.