ABSTRACT
Résumé Après son apparition en Chine à la fin de 2019, l’épidémie de SARS Cov2 (ou COVID-19) a rapidement provoqué le risque d’une saturation des ressources en soins intensifs dans les régions touchées. La répartition de la maladie entre les différents territoires étant hétérogène, le recours à la réalisation des transferts de patients depuis des régions saturées vers des régions non saturées s’est imposé. Des missions d’évacuations aéromédicales collectives de patients atteints de COVID-19 ont été réalisées par les équipes du service de santé des Armées et de l’Armée de l’air français. Deux dispositifs ont été déployés : les modules MoRPHEE sur le vecteur Airbus A330 PHENIX et les modules MEROPE sur le vecteur Airbus A400M ATLAS. C’est un total de 59 patients en SDRA lié à la COVID-19 qui ont pu bénéficier de ces transferts entre mars et novembre 2020. Summary After its emergence in China in late 2019, the SARS-CoV-2 (or COVID-19) outbreak quickly exposed care systems to critical care resource saturation in affected regions. Because of the heterogeneous distribution of the disease among different territories, the use of patient transfers from saturated regions to non-saturated regions became necessary. Collective aeromedical evacuation missions of SARS-CoV-2 related ARDS patients were performed by the French Air Force and French Military Health Service teams. Two systems were used: the MoRPHEE system on the Airbus A330 PHENIX and the MEROPE system on the Airbus A400M ATLAS. 59 patients with SARS-CoV-2 related ARDS was transferred using these systems between March and November 2020.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the French Government imposed various containment strategies, such as severe lockdown (SL) or moderate lockdown (ML). The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of both strategies on severe trauma admissions and ICU capacity in Ile-de-France region (Paris Area). MAIN TEXT: We conducted a multicenter cohort-based observational study from 1stJanuary 2017 to 31th December 2020, including all consecutive trauma patients admitted to the trauma centers of Ile-de-France region participating in the national registry (Traumabase®). Two periods were defined, the "non-pandemic period" (NPP) from 2017 to 2019, and the "pandemic period" (PP) concerning those admitted in 2020. The number of ICU beds released during 2020 pandemic period (overall period, SL and ML) was estimated by multiplying difference in trauma admissions by the median length of stay during the same week of pandemic period (ICU day-beds in 2020). A 15% yearly reduction of trauma patients was observed during the PP, associated with the release of 6422 ICU day-beds in 2020. During SL and ML, the observed decrease in trauma admission was respectively 49 and 39% compared with similar dates of the NPP. The number of beds released was 1531 days-beds in SL and 679 day-beds in ML. Those reductions respectively accounted for 4.5 and 6.0% of the overall ICU admission for COVID-19 in Ile-de-France. CONCLUSION: The lockdown strategies during pandemic resulted in a reduction of severe trauma admissions. In addition to the social distancing effect, lockdown strategies freed up an important number of ICU beds in trauma centers, available for severe COVID-19 patients.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Communicable Disease Control , Humans , Pandemics/prevention & control , SARS-CoV-2 , WorkflowABSTRACT
After the appearance of the COVID-19 pandemic in France, MEROPE system was created to transform the military tactical ATLAS A400M aircraft into a flying intensive care unit. Collective aeromedical evacuations (aero-MEDEVAC) of patients suffering from SARS-CoV-2-related acute respiratory distress syndrome was performed from June to December 2020. A total of 22 patients were transported during seven missions. All aero-MEDEVAC was performed in safe conditions for patients and crew. No life-threatening conditions occurred during flight. Biohazard controls were applied according to French guidelines and prevented crew contamination. Thanks to rigorous selection criteria and continuous in-flight medical care, the safe transportation of these patients was possible. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first description of collective aero-MEDEVAC of these kinds of patients using a tactical military aircraft. We here describe the patient's characteristics and the flight's challenges.