When can an enhanced critical care team add value to equestrian related incidents? A retrospective observational study
File(s)Manuscript revised unmarked.docx (72.42 KB)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Morton, Sarah
Wareham, Gaynor
Sherren, Peter
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) may be tasked to equestrian related incidents. Previous studies have suggested that majority of patients do not require HEMS specific interventions. No data has been published since 2015 so this article aims to establish the current incidence of equestrian incidents attended by one UK HEMS and identify trends that would aid the dispatch of HEMS to the patients who most need it. METHODS: A retrospective review of the computerised record system for one UK HEMS was performed between 1st January 2015-30th June 2022. Demographic data, timings, suspected injury pattern and HEMS specific intervention details were extracted. The 20 patients with the highest confirmed injury burden were reviewed in detail. RESULTS: 257 patients (229 female) were treated by HEMS (0.02% of all HEMS dispatches). Of those 124 dispatches were due to interrogation of the 999 calls by a clinician on the dispatch desk. Only 52% were conveyed to hospital by the HEMS team; 51% had no HEMS specific intervention. Of the 20 most severely injured patients their pathology included splenic, liver, spinal cord and traumatic brain injuries. CONCLUSION: Whilst HEMS dispatches to equestrian incidents remain a small percentage, there are four mechanisms that may benefit due to potential injury burden: fall onto head with suggestion of hyper-extension or hyper-flexion injury; kick to the torso; horse fallen or repetitively rolled onto patient and, no movement of patient since incident. In addition, age >50 years should be considered as higher risk.
Date Issued
2023-09
Date Acceptance
2023-06-10
Citation
Injury, 2023, 54 (9)
ISSN
1879-0267
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Journal / Book Title
Injury
Volume
54
Issue
9
Copyright Statement
Copyright © Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37365090
PII: S0020-1383(23)00571-5
Subjects
Air Ambulances
Aircraft
Animals
Critical Care
Emergency Medical Services
Female
Horses
Humans
Retrospective Studies
Dispatch
Equestrian
HEMS
Horse
Injuries
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
Netherlands
Article Number
110885
Date Publish Online
2023-07-22