Air medical transportation in India: Our experience (original) (raw)

The Characteristics of Aeromedical Transport Missions at Bangkok Hospital, Thailand

The Bangkok Medical Journal, 2013

Increasing numbers of foreign tourists, expatriates, and patients seeking medical care in Thailand have resulted in a signi cant increase in aeromedical transport activity, both evacuation and repatriation over the past decade. However, there is little epidemiological data currently available on the diagnoses, costs and transport characteristics in Thailand and Southeast Asia. We therefore performed a descriptive analysis of evacuation and repatriation cases in order to compare helicopter and xed-wing transport in various ways such as ight time, distance and economic aspects. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A retrospective review of medical records of patients in 2011 evacuated or repatriated by the Aviation Medicine Department, Bangkok Hospital. Demographic information, diagnoses, modes of transport, type of aircraft, ight time and nancial detail were analyzed.

Air Medical Transport of Cardiac Patients

Chest, 2003

The air medical transport of cardiac patients is a rapidly expanding practice. For various medical, social, and economic indications, patients are being flown longer distances at commercial altitudes, including international and intercontinental flights. There are data supporting the use of short-distance helicopter flights early in the course of a cardiac event for patients needing emergent transfer for percutaneous coronary intervention or aortocoronary bypass. When considering elective long-distance air medical transport of cardiac patients for social or economic reasons, it is necessary to weigh the benefits against the potential risks of flight. A few recent studies suggest that long-distance air medical transport is safe under certain circumstances. Current guidelines for air travel after myocardial infarction do not address the use of medical escorts or air ambulances equipped with intensive care facilities. Further research using larger prospective studies is needed to better define criteria for safe long-distance air medical transport of cardiac patients.

Experiences and Challenges Faced During Transportation of Critically Ill Patients

https://www.ijhsr.org/IJHSR\_Vol.11\_Issue.7\_July2021/IJHSR-Abstract.018.html, 2021

Objective: This study is aimed to assess the incidence of major events during transportation of critically ill patients. Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted in 200 patients during inter hospital transportation from January 2017 to December 2017 at Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS), Kochi after fulfilling both inclusion and exclusion criteria. The main objective is to assess the incidence of major events during transportation of critically ill patients. The variables recorded in this study includes age, gender, co-morbidities, airway, breathing, circulation-related events during inter hospital transportation and duration of transportation. Inclusion criteria include critically ill patients in the age group of 18-100 years and exclusion criteria include pregnant patients. Results: On assessing the data of all 200 critically ill patients who had undergone inter hospital transport about 38.5% patients had major events compromising the circulation .In this study Hypertension (27.5%) is the more common baseline disease that deteriorated while transportation.38.5% of study population had major events compromising the circulation ,12.5% had major events in breathing and 35.5% patients had no major events in their airway, breathing and circulation during transportation. Conclusion: During the transportation of critically ill patients under the monitoring of trained medical personnel 38.5% of major events occurred in the circulation part. Respiratory issues were presented in 27% patients (54), of which 30 had desaturation and remaining had tachypnea, which was managed by NIV or Invasive ventilation. 5% of patients had airway compromise, managed by appropriate basic or advanced airway maneuvers. Hence pre transport checklist and continuous monitoring by an experienced medical personnel is necessary for the prevention of adverse events during transportation.

Medical emergencies in commercial air travel

Emergency medicine clinics of North America, 1997

There are physiologic and logistic concerns involved in caring for patients with inflight emergencies. This article presents the physiologic changes that occur at altitude, the types of medical problems that can be encountered, and management strategies. An overview is also presented of the medical training of flight attendants and the medical equipment that is available on commercial aircraft.

Medical Emergencies in Commercial Air Transportation

Promet-traffic & Transportation, 2006

The paper presents medical emergencies during the flight time. The focus is on the most common types and causes of these emergencies. World indicators show an increase in the passenger number and accordingly, an increased number of emergency conditions and interventions. Lately, the larger aircraft have been produced, with larger number of seats and that leads to the increase in emergency medical interventions during long intercontinental flights. A typical sequence of events during medical interventions in aircraft is presented. Elderly passengers and those who have known chronic diseases have to take care about their condition by consulting the physicians, whose main scope of work is aviation medicine.

Clinical Research of Mortality in Emergency Air Medical Transport

BioMed Research International, 2014

EAMT in Taiwan has experienced increasing demand in the past few years. The objective is to analyze the trend of EAMT in the past six years and mortality rate within three days of patients undergoing interfacility transport in Taiwan. We conducted a retrospective review of patients who were airlifted from remote islands to main island between 2006 and 2011. Main outcome measures are EAMT number (EAMT-N), EAMT per thousand population (EAMT frequency, EAMT-F), number of mortality (Mor-N), and mortality rate within three days after EAMT (Mor-R). Overall mortality rate is 7.54% in 1684 airlifted patients. Acute myocardial infarction (AMI, 26.3%) and traumatic brain injury (TBI, 25.8%) comprise the majority in diagnosis (52.1%). However, Mor-R in these two categories is significantly low in AMI (3.5%) and TBI (5.1%). The present study demonstrates that physician density is not related to EAMT-N but to physician number. As general population ages (10%), the average age of patient who underwent EAMT doubled (21%). This study also leaves room for discussion regarding futile medical care. The results can be used as a reference for increasing utilization of EAMT in current National Health Care Scheme.

Emergencies in the sky: In-flight medical emergencies during commercial air transport

Trends in Anaesthesia and Critical Care, 2013

Background: In 2012, approximately 2.5 billion people worldwide traveled by commercial airline transport. Therefore, medical issues concerning the air travel of passengers have gained increasing publicity over the last few years. Although in-flight medical emergencies frequently occur in commercial airline operations, detailed data about the incidence, causes and consequences still remains limited. The aim of this review was to gather and analyze the data of published reports concerning incidence, causes, and consequences of in-flight medical emergencies during commercial airline travel. Material and methods: To retrieve published data on in-flight medical emergencies of different previously published studies, a MEDLINE Ò search (http://www.pubmed.com) was performed using all combinations of the keywords ("in-flight" or "inflight") and ("emergency" or "emergencies") and ("airline travel" or "air travel") and ("medical" or "medicine"). Two specialists for Anesthesiology with expertise in aviation medicine as well as emergency medicine categorized the retrieved studies independently. Results: A total of 207 studies were retrieved by using the presented search terms in the MEDLINE Ò database. Subsequently 15 studies (1989e2012) provided data on the incidence, causes, and consequences of in-flight medical emergencies and were therefore used for analysis. Most authors report one in-flight medical emergency incident in the range of 10,000 to 40,000 passengers transported and the rate of an in-flight death ranges between one in 3 to one in 10 million passengers. Cardiac problems as well as syncope have the highest occurrence rate (50.3%) of emergencies during commercial airline travel. Less frequent are infectious diseases (27%) and neurological problems (23.4%). For minor problems, nausea and vomiting had the highest occurrence rate. Conclusions: Data on in-flight medical emergencies is scarcely published. However, neither a national nor European/international database on in-flight medical emergencies currently exists. For this purpose, a standardized, international database on in-flight medical emergencies is warranted in order to improve preventive strategies by assisting pre-flight medical assessment.