Scand J Trauma Resus
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Scand J Trauma Resus · Mar 2019
Randomized Controlled TrialDiagnostic value of prehospital arterial blood gas measurements - a randomised controlled trial.
Arterial blood gas analysis is an important diagnostic tool in managing critically ill patients within the hospital. Whether prehospital application of this diagnostic modality contributes to more exact diagnoses and treatments in critically ill prehospital patients is unknown. The aim of this study was to establish whether access to arterial blood gas analysis increased the prehospital diagnostic accuracy of prehospital anaesthesiologists. Furthermore, we investigated whether prehospital blood gas analysis resulted in therapeutic interventions that would not have been carried out if the arterial blood gas analyser had not been available. ⋯ Although prehospital arterial blood gas analysis did not improve the accuracy of the prehospital diagnoses assigned to patients, it significantly increased the quality of treatment provided to patients with acute critical illness.