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High Risk Pediatric Emergency Air Transport

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 June 2012

Brahm Goldstein ,
John H. Fugate ,
Alasdair K. Conn  and
I. David Todres
Brahm Goldstein*
Affiliation:
Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and Emergency Services MassachusettsGeneral Hospital Departments of Pediatrics and Surgery, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, Mass., USA
John H. Fugate
Affiliation:
Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and Emergency Services MassachusettsGeneral Hospital Departments of Pediatrics and Surgery, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, Mass., USA
Alasdair K. Conn
Affiliation:
Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and Emergency Services MassachusettsGeneral Hospital Departments of Pediatrics and Surgery, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, Mass., USA
I. David Todres
Affiliation:
Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and Emergency Services MassachusettsGeneral Hospital Departments of Pediatrics and Surgery, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, Mass., USA
*
Strong Children's Critical Care Center, University of Rochester Medical Center, 601 Elmwood Ave., Rochester, N.Y. 14642, USA
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Abstract

Introduction:

Pediatric Emergency Air Transports (PEATs) at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, were reviewed between November 1986 and December 1987. Severity of illness, complications, and outcome of PEATs were compared with ground transports. Factors associated with PEAT survival were identified.

Methods:

Severity of illness was measured using a modified Denver Patient Status Category (DPSC) method and the Therapeutic Intervention Scoring System (TISS). There were 35 PEATs (30 helicopter, five fixed-wing) and 96 ground transports.

Results:

Mean severity of illness for patients was greater in PEAT than for the ground transport (PEAT DPSC score=4.23±1.06 versus ground DPSC=3.57±0.89 [SD], p=.0005). The PEAT mortality was associated with a greater mean severity of illness (TISS survivors=19.1±11.4 versus non-survivors=44.3±9.5, p=.0001), but not with: the presence of an in-flight physician; transport delay; transport duration; age; sex; history of chronic illness; or intra-transport medical complication.

Conclusions:

Compared to ground transports, PEATs were used for higher risk patients.

Type
Original Research
Information
Prehospital and Disaster Medicine , Volume 6 , Issue 4 , December 1991 , pp. 408 - 414
Copyright
Copyright © World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine 1991

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