Helicopter EMS

Helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) frequently respond to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) situations. Some have speculated mechanical cardiopulmonary resuscitation (mCPR) may be able to rectify the inadequacy of human performance of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) during transport. A number of studies have examined the performance of mCPR devices in the air medical setting specifically. Many aspects of the HEMS environment seem uniquely conducive to mCPR, and a growing body of research seems to suggest mCPR holds promise for the treatment of cardiac arrest by HEMS clinicians...

BACKGROUND: The incidence of early seizures (occurring within 7 days of stroke onset) after intracerebral haemorrhage reaches 30% when subclinical seizures are diagnosed by continuous EEG. Early seizures might be associated with haematoma expansion and worse neurological outcomes. Current guidelines do not recommend prophylactic antiseizure treatment in this setting. We aimed to assess whether prophylactic levetiracetam would reduce the risk of acute seizures in patients with intracerebral haemorrhage...

OBJECTIVE: Tranexamic acid (TXA) has demonstrated a reduction in all-cause mortality in trauma patients with hemorrhage. Administering TXA in the prehospital setting presents unique challenges because the identification of bleeding is based on clinical suspicion without advanced imaging or diagnostic tools. The objective of this study was to examine whether prehospital suspicion of bleeding is validated by in-hospital computed tomographic imaging and examination and to determine if patients received TXA in the absence of hemorrhage...

Introduction: Hypotension is a critical event during the transport of critically ill patients. Push dose vasopressor use, though widely adopted by anesthesiologists, has only recently found use in the field of emergency medicine and may have utility in the management of out-of-hospital hypotension. This study aimed to characterize the hemodynamic effects and adverse events that occur following push dose epinephrine (PDE) administration by critical care transport (CCT) providers to correct documented hypotension...

BACKGROUND: In many Western countries, Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) have become standard in the prehospital care of severely injured patients. Several studies have shown that HEMS have a positive effect on patient's outcome, although it remains unclear which specific patients benefit most from its care. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of HEMS on the outcome of a large polytraumatized (Injury Severity Score≥16) population. METHODS: All polytraumatized patients treated at the scene of the accident by EMS and/or HEMS and presented in the VU University Medical Center during a period of 6 years were included and retrospectively analyzed...

Mechanical chest compression devices are mentioned in the current guidelines of the European Resuscitation Council (ERC) as an alternative in long-lasting cardiopulmonary resuscitations (CPR) or during transport with ongoing CPR. We compared manual chest compression with mechanical devices in a rescue-helicopter-based scenario using a resuscitation manikin. Manual chest compression was compared with the mechanical devices LUCAS™ 2, AutoPulse™ and animax mono (10 series each) using the resuscitation manikin AmbuMan MegaCode Wireless, which was intubated endotracheally and controlled ventilated during the entire scenario...

OBJECTIVE: Antifibrinolytic agent tranexamic acid (TXA) has a potential clinical benefit for in-hospital patients with severe bleeding but its effectiveness in pre-hospital settings remains unclear. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate whether pre-hospital administration of TXA compared to placebo improve patients' outcomes? METHODS: PubMed, MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Scopus, clinicaltrials...

INTRODUCTION: This study correlated the eFAST findings performed in-flight by the flight crew with the findings obtained by the trauma team upon initial evaluation at a level 1 trauma center and with the subsequent CT scans that were performed or the surgeon's operative note. We hypothesize that aeromedical eFAST examinations are highly correlated with the trauma teams findings. METHODS: This prospective, observational study evaluated 190 traumatically injured patients from June 2014 to December 2015 in Southeast Virginia and Northeast North Carolina...

BACKGROUND: Aeromedical crews routinely use needle thoracostomy (NT) and tube thoracostomy (TT) to treat major trauma victims (MTVs) with potential tension pneumothorax; however, the efficacy of prehospital NT and TT is unclear. OBJECTIVES: To explore the efficacy of aeromedical NT and TT in MTVs. METHODS: A retrospective chart review was performed using prehospital medical records and the county trauma registry over a seven-year period. All MTVs undergoing placement of NT or TT by aeromedical personnel were included; patients with incomplete data were excluded...

INTRODUCTION: Ketamine is a dissociative agent used for sedation and intubation in various clinical settings. Despite its proven haemodynamic safety, ketamine has not been widely used in prehospital medicine. This study examined the use of ketamine in helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS). METHODS: This prospective cohort study enrolled all patients transported by a single HEMS program in whom ketamine was used to facilitate intubation. Data were collected using standard forms by two independent trained research staff...

BACKGROUND: Civilian out-of-hospital transfusions have not been adequately studied. This study seeks to characterize patients receiving out-of-hospital blood product transfusion during critical care transport. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: We studied patients transported by a regional critical care air-medical service who received blood products during transport. This service carries two units of uncrossmatched packed Red Blood Cells (pRBCs) on every transport in addition to blood obtained from referring facilities...

OBJECTIVE: The use of thoracostomy to treat tension pneumothorax is a core skill for prehospital providers. Tension pneumothoraces are potentially lethal and are often encountered in the prehospital environment. METHODS: The authors reviewed the prehospital electronic medical records of patients who had undergone finger thoracostomy (FT) or tube thoracostomy (TT) while under the care of air medical crewmembers. Demographic data were obtained along with survival and complications...

BACKGROUND: Evidence on prehospital administration of the antifibrinolytic tranexamic acid (TXA) in civilian trauma populations is scarce. The aim was to study whether prehospital TXA use in trauma patients was associated with improved outcomes. METHODS: The prehospital database of the ADAC (General German Automobile Club) Air Rescue Service was linked with the TraumaRegister of the German Trauma Society to reidentify patients documented in both registries. Primarily admitted trauma patients (2012 until 2014) who were treated with TXA during the prehospital phase were matched with patients who had not received prehospital TXA, applying propensity score-based matching...

OBJECTIVE: This study sought to determine the effectiveness of apneic oxygenation in preventing hypoxemia during prehospital rapid sequence intubation (RSI). METHODS: We performed a case-cohort study using a pre-existing database looking at intubation management by a single helicopter emergency medical service between July 2013 and June 2015. Apneic oxygenation using high-flow nasal cannula (15 L/min) was introduced to the standard RSI protocol in July 2014. Severe hypoxemia was defined as an incidence of oxygen saturation less than 90%...

Asthmatic children are at risk for respiratory failure and should be appropriately treated before transport. The objectives were to find out if the Pediatric Advanced Life Support guidelines for asthma treatment were followed in the emergency department (ED); to determine if additional treatment during transport or within the first 2 hours of admission was needed; and to compare the management of intubated asthmatics by the ED, transport team, and the intensive care unit (ICU) physician. The records for children diagnosed with acute asthma over 7 years who were transported by the intensive care transport team were reviewed...

OBJECTIVE: The air medical transfer of psychiatric patients with acute agitation is a regular requirement in only a few countries, with ours (Australia) being one of them. The optimal strategy has yet to be well described, ranging from physical restraints to general anesthesia with endotracheal intubation. In an Australian air medical service, Royal Flying Doctor Service (Queensland Section) rates of endotracheal intubation required for patient management were retrospectively compared before and after implementation of a ketamine sedation protocol for this patient population...

Remote ischemic peri-conditioning (RIPC) has gained interest as a means of reducing ischemic injury in patients with acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) who are undergoing emergent primary percutaneous coronary intervention (pPCI). We aimed to evaluate the feasibility, process, and patient-related factors related to the delivery of RIPC during air medical transport of STEMI patients to tertiary pPCI centers. We performed a retrospective review of procedural outcomes of a cohort of STEMI patients who received RIPC as part of a clinical protocol in a multi-state air medical service over 16 months (March 2013 to June 2014)...

INTRODUCTION: We sought to create a valid framework for detecting adverse events (AEs) in the high-risk setting of helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS). METHODS: We assembled a panel of 10 expert clinicians (n = 6 emergency medicine physicians and n = 4 prehospital nurses and flight paramedics) affiliated with a large multistate HEMS organization in the Northeast US. We used a modified Delphi technique to develop a framework for detecting AEs associated with the treatment of critically ill or injured patients...

The NAEMSP recognizes the multifaceted and integral position of a medical director for an air medical transport program and the EMS community at large.

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