Citation

Schumacher C, Mössinger E, Min W, Hildebrand F, Frink M. Air Med. J. 2016; 35(3): 166-170.

Affiliation

Helicopter Emergency Medical Service, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany; Department for Trauma, Hand and Reconstructive Surgery, University Medical Center Marburg, Marburg, Germany. Electronic address: michaelfrink@web.de.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.amj.2015.12.005

PMID

27255880

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Drowning is one of the leading injury death causes in younger children. Common intensive care measures seem not to improve neurologic outcome, and early prognostic options appear partially unreliable. Therefore, we evaluated a cohort of drowning patients cotreated by a helicopter emergency medical service regarding typical incident constellations, early and subsequent prognostic options, and relevant interventions.

METHODS: All patients prehospitally cotreated by helicopter emergency medical service "Christoph 4" in primary missions because of drowning incidents during a 10-year period were evaluated. Patient, prehospital, and clinical data were recorded retrospectively; correlations and prognostic values were evaluated with appropriate statistical tests.

RESULTS: Fifty-one patients were included. Various examination results (several vital, neurologic, and laboratory parameters) and sufficient prehospital first aid measures were significantly correlated with the final outcome (P <.05, respectively). Aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase values precisely discriminated between the final outcome groups (P =.001 and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve = 1.0 in both cases).

CONCLUSION: Aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase values were the most useful predictors of outcome in our study. Sufficient prehospital first aid measures were correlated with improved outcome. Regular first aider training is recommended.

Copyright © 2016 Air Medical Journal Associates. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Language: en