Der Anaesthesist
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On 24 July 2010 the love parade, a large scale open air concert was held in the city of Duisburg to which more than 500,000 guests were expected. During the course of the early evening a major tragic incident occurred in which 21 people were crushed to death and several hundred others were injured. In this article the preparation of the emergency and rescue services prior to the event is described and their operations entailing more than 1,600 staff members from all over Germany are illustrated. The article focuses on the mass casualty incident which took place in the tunnel in the early evening of that day.
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In emergency medicine intraosseous access (IOA) has been established as an alternative to conventional intravenous access. Originally the use of IOA was strictly limited to children up to 6 years of age and to adults for cardiopulmonary resuscitation. These limitations have been relaxed and the indications for IOA have been expanded. ⋯ The current guidelines and recommendations for the use of IOA in the prehospital setting are reflected more and more in mission reality for helicopter emergency medical services.
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Trauma is the leading cause of death in the patient group under 40 years of age. Within the prehospital management of seriously injured trauma victims the accuracy of the field triage by emergency physicians is of utmost importance. ⋯ Accurate field triage in seriously injured road accident victims, even by trained physicians, is difficult. This pertains especially to injuries to the abdomen and the pelvis. For the field triage a combination of anatomical and physiological criteria as well as the mechanism of injury should be used to increase accuracy.