A multicenter cohort study on the association between prehospital immobilization and functional outcome of patients following spinal injury in Asia

AbstractPrehospital spinal immobilization is a widely used procedure in the emergency medical service (EMS) system worldwide, while the incidence of patients with spinal injury (SI) is relatively low, and unnecessary prehospital spinal immobilization is associated with patient complications. This study aimed to determine the association between prehospital spine immobilization and favorable functional outcomes at hospital discharge among trauma patients with SI. We conducted a retrospective cohort study using the Pan-Asia Trauma Outcomes Study (PATOS) registry data from January 1, 2016, to November 30, 2018. A total of 759 patients with SI were enrolled from 43,752 trauma patients in the PATOS registry during the study period. The subjects had a median age of 58 years (Q1–Q3, 41–72), and 438 (57.7%) patients had prehospital spine immobilization. Overall, prehospital spinal immobilization was not associated with favorable functional outcomes at discharge in multivariable logistic regression (aOR 1.06; 95% CI 0.62–1.81, p = 0.826). However, in the subgroup of cervical SI, prehospital spinal immobilization was associated with favorable functional outcomes at discharge (aOR 3.14; 95% CI 1.04–9.50; p = 0.043). Therefore, we suggest that paramedics should be more careful when determining the presence of a cervical SI and should apply full spine immobilization if possible.</jats:p

Association between prehospital fluid resuscitation with crystalloids and outcome of trauma patients in Asia by a cross-national multicenter cohort study

AbstractPrehospital fluid resuscitation with crystalloids in patients following trauma remain controversial. This study aimed to investigate the association between prehospital fluid resuscitation and outcomes of trauma patients in Asia. We conducted a retrospective cohort study of trauma patients between 2016 and 2018 using data from the Pan-Asia Trauma Outcomes Study (PATOS) database. Prehospital fluid resuscitation was defined as any administration of intravenous crystalloid fluid on the ambulance before arrival to hospitals. The outcomes were in-hospital mortality and poor functional outcomes, defined as Modified Rankin Scale ≥ 4. Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to equalize potential prognostic factors in both groups. This study included 31,735 patients from six countries in Asia, and 4318 (13.6%) patients had ever received prehospital fluid resuscitation. The patients receiving prehospital fluid resuscitation had a higher risk of in-hospital mortality, with an adjusted odds ratio (aOR) of 2.02, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.32–3.10, p = 0.001 in PSM analysis. Prehospital fluid resuscitation was also associated with poor functional outcomes, with an OR 1.73, 95% CI: 1.48–2.03, p &lt; 0.001 in PSM analysis. Prehospital fluid resuscitation in patients with major trauma (injury severity score ≥ 16) presented a higher risk of poor functional outcomes (aOR = 2.65, 95% CI: 1.89–3.73 in PSM analysis, pinteraction = 0.006) via subgroup analysis. Prehospital fluid resuscitation of trauma patients is associated with higher in-hospital mortality and poor functional outcomes in the subgroup in countries studied. </jats:p