The American journal of emergency medicine
-
The Trauma Score, a physiologic measure of injury severity, has been used to evaluate prehospital care by comparing the score before with the score after patient transport. To assess the value of the Trauma Score when used in this way, we compared the change in Trauma Score (TS change) during transport to eventual mortality in a group of injured patients. Patients transported by helicopter to the base hospital during a 22-month period had scores obtained on arrival of the flight crew (TS initial) and again on arrival at the emergency department (TS after transport). ⋯ The best predictor of mortality was TS after transport (F = 80.94, P less than .01). When TS after transport was removed as an explanatory variable, TS initial was found to have significant predictive power for mortality (F = 76.98, P less than .01), with TS change adding significantly to predictive power (F = 15.02, P less than .01). We conclude that because TS change is predictive of survival, it is potentially useful as an outcome measure to evaluate the impact of treatment during transport.
-
Recent studies in swine have shown that larger doses of epinephrine than those currently employed for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) significantly improve regional myocardial blood flow following prolonged cardiac arrest. The dose-response effect of a pure alpha-adrenergic agonist, methoxamine, on regional myocardial blood flow has not been investigated in this setting. This study compared the effect of high-dose epinephrine with graded doses of methoxamine on regional myocardial blood flow, oxygen delivery/utilization, and defibrillation rates during CPR. ⋯ Three and one half minutes after drug administration, defibrillation was attempted. Regional myocardial blood flow following drug administration was compared using an analysis of covariance. Epinephrine (0.2 mg/kg) significantly improved myocardial blood flow (P less than .002) for all tissues examined compared with all doses of methoxamine.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
-
The performance of life-saving procedures by prehospital care personnel was reviewed in the cases of 114 pulseless, nonbreathing pediatric patients. Children 18 months to 18 years of age had a significantly greater chance of having prehospital endotracheal intubation and vascular access established compared to children younger than 18 months of age. ⋯ Nine (8%) patients survived, and only three of the survivors were without neurologic sequelae. The number of neurologically intact survivors was too small to show a statistically significant association with these factors.
-
The Rapid Acute Physiology Score (RAPS) was developed and tested for use as a severity scale in critical care transports. RAPS is an abbreviated version of the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE-II) using only parameters routinely available on all transported patients (i.e. pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate, and Glasgow Coma Scale). RAPS has a range from 0 (normal) to 16. ⋯ When pretransport RAPS was considered as a single explanatory variable, it too had significant predictive power for mortality (X2(1) = 92.53, P less than .01). Correlation analysis comparing RAPS with APACHE-II values at similar points in time revealed a significant relationship in all cases, with the highest correlation between RAPS worst values and APACHE-II worst values (r = .8472, P less than .01). It was concluded that RAPS can be applied usefully in complement with APACHE-II and may have limited utility when used alone.