Prehospital medical equipment for care of pediatric injury patients in Japanese ambulances: a nationwide survey.

Aim: We evaluated the status of the allocation of medical emergency equipment suitable for pediatric patients of all ages.

Methods: In 2019, we surveyed the emergency medical officers from 728 fire defense headquarters around Japan. The questionnaire was designed to evaluate the kind and size of equipment available to ambulance crews for prehospital emergency care of injured pediatric patients. A complete pediatric equipment set was defined as a set containing equipment suitable for children aged 0-14 years.

Results: Overall, 599 (82%) fire defense headquarters responded to our survey. Of these, 596 (99.5%) declared that pediatric equipment was available to ambulance crews. The allocation rates of complete pediatric sets were considerably low: blood pressure cuff, 5%; nasopharyngeal airway, 1%; oropharyngeal airway, 7%; laryngoscope, 6%; supraglottic airway device, 13%; endotracheal tube, 0.2%; and bag-valve-mask, 23%. Moreover, none of these fire defense headquarters had complete pediatric equipment sets for all 14 devices assessed in this study.

Conclusions: Although most Japanese ambulances can provide prehospital emergency care to pediatric patients, this survey revealed the dispersion and deficiencies in the availability of complete pediatric equipment sets.