The impact of prehospital emergency services on the outcome of trauma patients

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Trauma is one of the most important health problems in the world, and shock index is a good tool for evaluating trauma patients in emergency. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of prehospital emergency on the outcome of trauma patients. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we investigated the records of 359 patients referred to the emergency department; they were selected non-randomly. Demographic information, trauma mechanism, patients' transportation, location and duration of hospitalization and the final outcomes of the patients were evaluated. the predictive power of the shock index in hospitalization and mortality was studied. The data were analyzed by SPSS software using descriptive and analytical statistics. Results: The results of study showed that 73.3% of patients were male and 26.7% were female with a median of 30 years. Car and motorcycle accidents and falling from altitude were the most common mechanisms of trauma and cause of death. Time interval between trauma and emergency shock index and patient status was normal and significant ( P < 0.7). Conclusion: The rate of patients who were transferred by EMS is equal with those transferred by witness. Patients who had normal shock index with delay transfer time had a significantly high mortality rate.

Keywords

• emergency department
• mortality
• prehospital
• trauma