The Efficiency of Ground Transport and Efficacy of Mobile Trauma Unit on the Inter-Hospital Transfer of Severe Trauma Patients

Byun, Eunae; Kyoung, Kyuhyouck; Kim, Sungjeep; Keum, Minae; Park, Sungkyun; Kim, Jihoon T

Abstract

PURPOSE
The author's trauma center implemented Mobile Trauma Units (MTU), which are ground transportation automobiles constructed with advanced medical equipment, in an attempt to improve the survival rate of severe trauma patients. The purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of MTU as a means of inter-hospital transfer of patients in urban environments.
METHODS
Patients with an injury severity score (ISS) of 16 or more were enrolled in this study. The participants must also be patients who were transferred with the MTU in the 18 months between January 2017 and June 2018. To assess the survival probability, the revised trauma score (RTS), trauma and injury severity score (TRISS), and w-score were used as the outcome indices.
RESULTS
Forty-four (86.3%) of the severe trauma patients with an ISS of 16 or more were male and 7 (13.7%) were female. The number of patients from the territory were 32 (62.7%), and patients from the others were 19 (37.3%). All the patients received their injury from blunt force trauma. The average time of from the scene of the accident to the trauma center was 176 minutes. In 13 deaths, 10 (76.9%) of the RTS values were below 4 points. Among the 51 patients, TRISS was more than 0.5 in 32 patients (62.7%). The w-score was 13.25 and the actual survival rate of a patient was 74.50%.
CONCLUSION
Ground transportation automobiles that use MTU for severe trauma patients in urban areas are more economically beneficial and more efficient. The survival rate while using MTU was also shown to be higher than that of medical helicopter transfers.