Does Helicopter Emergency Care Service Improve Blunt Trauma Mortality

摘要

A retrospective study of a hospital based helicopter service was studied todetermine if patients transported with blunt trauma from accident scenes to a Level I trauma center experienced a reduction in predicted mortality rates. The medical records of 78 consecutive ground ambulance patients and 149 consecutive helicopter patients during the period January 1, 1988 to January 1, 1989 who met the criteria were reviewed. There were no statistically significant differences in the predicted mortality of patients transported by ground ambulance or helicopter. Patients transported by helicopter demonstrated no decrease in predicted and actual mortality rates. In this group, sixteen patients were predicted to die and 18 actual deaths occurred.