Association Between Finger Plethysmographic Features and Impedance-Based Thoracic Fluid Content Measurement in a Lower Body Negative Pressure Model of Hemorrhagic Shock.

Introduction: Timely identification of the need for lifesaving intervention in battlefield conditions may be improved through automated monitoring of the injured warfighter. Technologies that combine maximal noninvasive insight with minimal equipment footprint give the greatest opportunity for deployment at scale with inexperienced providers in forward areas. Finger photoplethysmography (PPG) signatures are associated with impending hemorrhagic shock but may be insufficient alone.

Association of the Revised Trauma Score with Mortality and Prehospital LSI Among Trauma and Non-Trauma Patients.

Objectives: The combination of broad conditional applicability and ease of data collection make some general risk scores an attractive tool for clinical decision making under acute care conditions. To date, general risk scores have demonstrated moderate levels of accuracy for key outcomes, but there are no definitive general scores integrated universally into prehospital care. The objective of our study was to demonstrate a relationship between the Revised Trauma Score (RTS) and prehospital lifesaving interventions (LSI) and downstream hospital mortality among a large, diverse, multi-year cohort of critical care transport patients.

Prehospital Delta Shock Index Predicts Mortality and Need for Life Saving Interventions in Trauma Patients.

Objectives: The delta shock index (ΔSI), defined as the change in shock index (SI) over time, is associated with hospital morbidity and mortality, but prehospital studies about ΔSI are limited. We investigate the association of prehospital ΔSI with mortality and resource utilization, hypothesizing that increases in SI among field trauma patients are associated with increased mortality and blood product transfusion.

Methods: We performed a multicenter, retrospective, observational study from the Linking Investigators in Trauma and Emergency Services (LITES) network.

Acquisition of Prehospital Stroke Severity Scale is associated with shorter door-to-puncture times in patients with prehospital notifications transported directly to a thrombectomy center.

Background: We sought to identify systemic factors influencing door-to-puncture times (DTP) among patients with pre-arrival notifications presenting directly to a comprehensive stroke center (CSC) and undergoing emergent mechanical thrombectomy (MT).

Methods: In this retrospective analysis of a prospectively maintained registry of acute ischemic stroke (AIS) patients undergoing MT at two CSCs between January 2021 and October 2023, we included consecutive AIS patients presenting directly to the CSC with pre-arrival notifications via emergency medical services (EMS) and who underwent emergent MT. We excluded patients with known confounders to DTP and divided this cohort into two groups: DTP ≤75 min and >75 min.

Management of Patients With Cardiac Arrest Requiring Interfacility Transport: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association.

People who experience out-of-hospital cardiac arrest often require care at a regional center for continued treatment after resuscitation, but many do not initially present to the hospital where they will be admitted. For patients who require interfacility transport after cardiac arrest, the decision to transfer between centers is complex and often based on individual clinical characteristics, resources at the presenting hospital, and available transport resources. Once the decision has been made to transfer a patient after cardiac arrest, there is little direct guidance on how best to provide interfacility transport.

Alpha-2-adrenergic agonists reduce resting energy expenditure in humans during external cooling.

Intravenous alpha-2-adrenergic receptor agonists reduce energy expenditure and lower the temperature when shivering begins in humans, allowing a decrease in core body temperature. Because there are few data about similar effects from oral drugs, we tested whether single oral doses of the sedative dexmedetomidine (1 µg/kg sublingual or 4 µg/kg swallowed) or the muscle relaxant tizanidine (8 mg or 16 mg), combined with surface cooling, reduce energy expenditure and core body temperature in humans. A total of 26 healthy participants completed 41 one-day laboratory studies measuring core body temperature using an ingested telemetry capsule and measuring energy expenditure using indirect calorimetry for up to 6 hours after drug ingestion.

Early Glasgow Coma Scale Score and Prediction of Traumatic Brain Injury: A Secondary Analysis of Three Harmonized Prehospital Randomized Clinical Trials.

Objectives: The prehospital prediction of the radiographic diagnosis of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in hemorrhagic shock patients has the potential to promote early therapeutic interventions. However, the identification of TBI is often challenging and prehospital tools remain limited. While the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score is frequently used to assess the extent of impaired consciousness after injury, the utility of the GCS scores in the early prehospital phase of care to predict TBI in patients with severe injury and concomitant shock is poorly understood.

Characterization of adverse events in injured patients at risk of hemorrhagic shock: a secondary analysis of three harmonized prehospital randomized clinical trials.

Background: The reporting of adverse events (AEs) is required and well defined in the execution of clinical trials, but is poorly characterized particularly in prehospital trials focusing on traumatic injury. In the setting of prehospital traumatic injury trials, no literature currently exists analyzing the clinical implications of AEs and their associations with mortality and morbidity. We sought to analyze AEs from three prehospital hemorrhagic shock trials and characterize their time course, incidence, severity, associated clinical outcomes, and relatedness.

Identifying trigger cues for hospital blood transfusions based on ensemble of machine learning methods.

Background: Traumatic shock is the leading cause of preventable death with most patients dying within the first six hours from arriving to the hospital. This underscores the importance of prehospital interventions, and growing evidence suggests prehospital transfusion improves survival. Optimizing transfusion triggers in the prehospital setting is key to improving outcomes for patients in hemorrhagic shock.

Autonomous precision resuscitation during ground and air transport of an animal hemorrhagic shock model.

We tested the ability of a physiologically driven minimally invasive closed-loop algorithm, called Resuscitation based on Functional Hemodynamic Monitoring (ReFit), to stabilize for up to 3 h a porcine model of noncompressible hemorrhage induced by severe liver injury and do so during both ground and air transport. Twelve animals were resuscitated using ReFit to drive fluid and vasopressor infusion to a mean arterial pressure (MAP) > 60 mmHg and heart rate < 110 min 30 min after MAP < 40 mmHg following liver injury. ReFit was initially validated in 8 animals in the laboratory, then in 4 animals during air (23nm and 35nm) and ground (9 mi) to air (9.

Early Cold Stored Platelet Transfusion Following Severe Injury: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Objective: To determine the feasibility, efficacy, and safety of early cold stored platelet transfusion compared with standard care resuscitation in patients with hemorrhagic shock.

Background: Data demonstrating the safety and efficacy of early cold stored platelet transfusion are lacking following severe injury.

Methods: A phase 2, multicenter, randomized, open label, clinical trial was performed at 5 US trauma centers.

Prehospital tranexamic acid is associated with a survival benefit without an increase in complications: Results of two harmonized randomized clinical trials.

Introduction: Recent randomized clinical trials have demonstrated that prehospital tranexamic acid (TXA) administration following injury is safe and improves survival. However, the effect of prehospital TXA on adverse events, transfusion requirements, and any dose-response relationships require further elucidation.

Methods: A secondary analysis was performed using harmonized data from two large, double-blinded, randomized prehospital TXA trials.

Severity-Driven Trends in Mortality in a Large Regionalized Critical Care Transport Service.

Objective: The epidemiology accompanying helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) transport has evolved as agencies have matured and become integrated into regionalized health systems, as evidenced primarily by nationwide systems in Europe. System-level congruence between Europe and the United States, where HEMS is geographically fragmentary, is unclear. In this study, we provide a temporal, epidemiologic characterization of the largest standardized private, nonprofit HEMS system in the United States, STAT MedEvac.

Identifying Trigger Cues for Hospital Blood Transfusions Based on Ensemble Learning Methods.

Background: Traumatic shock is the leading cause of preventable death with most patients dying within the first 6 hours. This underscores the importance of prehospital interventions, and growing evidence suggests prehospital transfusion improves survival. Optimizing transfusion triggers in the prehospital setting is key to improving outcomes for patients in hemorrhagic shock.

The Role of Integrated Air Transport System in Managing Patients with Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Rupture.

Objective: Ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms (rAAAs) are highly morbid emergencies. Not all hospitals are equipped to repair them, and an air ambulance network may aid in regionalising specialty care to quaternary referral centres. The association between travel distance by air ambulance and rAAA mortality in patients transferred as an emergency for repair was examined.

A multicenter, randomized, doubleblind, placebo-controlled trial of amantadine to stimulate awakening in comatose patients resuscitated from cardiac arrest.

Objective: We hypothesized that the administration of amantadine would increase awakening of comatose patients resuscitated from cardiac arrest.

Methods: We performed a prospective, randomized, controlled pilot trial, randomizing subjects to amantadine 100 mg twice daily or placebo for up to 7 days. The study drug was administered between 72 and 120 hours after resuscitation and patients with absent N20 cortical responses, early cerebral edema, or ongoing malignant electroencephalography patterns were excluded.

Prehospital Time Following Traumatic Injury Is Independently Associated With the Need for In-Hospital Blood and Early Mortality for Specific Injury Types.

Objective: Treating traumatic hemorrhage is time sensitive. Prehospital care and transport modes (eg, helicopter and ground) may influence in-hospital events. We hypothesized that prehospital time (on-scene time [OST] and total prehospital time [TPT]) and transport mode are associated with same-day transfusion and mortality.

Hypertension during transfer is associated with poor outcomes in unstable patients with ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm.

Objective: Limited data exist for optimal blood pressure (BP) management during transfer of patients with ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm (rAAA). This study evaluates the effects of hypertension and severe hypotension during interhospital transfers in a cohort of patients with rAAA in hemorrhagic shock.

Methods: We performed a retrospective, single-institution review of patients with rAAA transferred via air ambulance to a quaternary referral center for repair (2003-2019).

The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: An individual patient data meta-analysis.

Aim: Prior studies have reported increased out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA) incidence and lower survival during the COVID-19 pandemic. We evaluated how the COVID-19 pandemic affected OHCA incidence, bystander CPR rate and patients' outcomes, accounting for regional COVID-19 incidence and OHCA characteristics.

Methods: Individual patient data meta-analysis of studies which provided a comparison of OHCA incidence during the first pandemic wave (COVID-period) with a reference period of the previous year(s) (pre-COVID period).

Effect of stomach inflation during cardiopulmonary resuscitation on return of spontaneous circulation in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients: A retrospective observational study.

Background: Gastric inflation caused by excessive ventilation is a common complication of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Gastric inflation may further compromise ventilation via increases in intrathoracic pressure, leading to decreased venous return and cardiac output, which may impair out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) outcomes. The purpose of this study was to measure the gastric volume of OHCA patients using computed tomography (CT) scan images and evaluate the effect of gastric inflation on return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC).

Association Between Emergency Medical Service Agency Volume and Mortality in Trauma Patients.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the association of annual trauma patient volume on outcomes for emergency medical services (EMS) agencies.

Background: Regionalization of trauma care saves lives. The underlying concept driving this is a volume-outcome relationship.