Accuracy of early warning scores for predicting serious adverse events in pre-hospital traumatic injury.

BACKGROUND: Traumatically injured patients are at higher risk of serious adverse events. Numerous physiological scoring systems are employed as diagnostic and/or prognostic tools. The objective of this study was to evaluate the scales most commonly used by emergency medical services for the early detection of prehospital serious adverse events. METHODS: Design. Preliminary longitudinal prospective observational study without intervention study in adults with prehospital traumatic injury. SETTING: The study was carried out in the public health system of Castile and León (Spain), from April 1, 2018 to October 31, 2019, involving seven advanced life support units and five hospitals. PARTICIPANTS: Traumatically injured patients over 18 years of age who were stabilized and transferred in advanced life support units to their referral hospital. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Appearance of serious adverse events at the prehospital level at the scene or during the transfer to the emergency department. RESULTS: A total of 346 patients were included in the study. The median age was 50 years (IQR: 38-65). 32 cases (7.8%) presented serious adverse events at the prehospital level. Areas under the curve for the detection of serious adverse events were obtained with the Prehospital Index (0.979; 95% CI: 0.94-1.00) and National Early Warning Score 2 (0.956; 95% CI: 0.90-1.00); p <0.001 for all scores. The Prehospital Index had a positive probability coefficient of 78.4 (95% CI: 62.8-68.6) and the National Early Warning Score 2 obtained 52.9 (95% CI: 39.7-65.6). A comparison of the curves was not significant for any of the scores studied (p> 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: All scoring systems were able to detect prehospital serious adverse events early in traumatic injury; therefore, any of the scoring systems could be useful and represent an ideal tool for routine use by emergency medical services in cases of traumatic injury.

A Multicenter Observational Prospective Cohort Study of Association of the Prehospital National Early Warning Score 2 and Hospital Triage with Early Mortality.

AIM OF THE STUDY: To evaluate the ability of the prehospital National Early Warning Score 2 scale (NEWS2) to predict early mortality (within 48 hours) after the index event based on the triage priority assigned for any cause in the emergency department. METHODS: This is a multicenter longitudinal observational cohort study on patients attending Advanced Life Support units and transferred to the emergency department of their reference hospital. We collected demographic, physiological, and clinical variables, main diagnosis, and hospital triage level as well as mortality. The main outcome variable was mortality from any cause within two days of the index event. RESULTS: Between April 1 and November 30, 2018, a total of 1054 patients were included in our study. Early mortality within the first 48 hours after the index event affected 55 patients (5.2%), of which 23 cases (41.8%) had causes of cardiovascular origin. In the stratification by triage levels, the AUC of the NEWS2 obtained for short-term mortality varied between 0.77 (95% CI: 0.65-0.89) for level I and 0.94 (95% CI: 0.79-1) for level III. CONCLUSIONS: The Prehospital Emergency Medical Services should evaluate the implementation of the NEWS2 as a routine evaluation, which, together with the structured hospital triage system, effectively serves to predict early mortality and detect high-risk patients.

Analysis of the early warning score to detect critical or high-risk patients in the prehospital setting.

The early warning score can help to prevent, recognize and act at the first signs of clinical and physiological deterioration. The objective of this study is to evaluate different scales for use in the prehospital setting and to select the most relevant one by applicability and capacity to predict mortality in the first 48 h. A prospective longitudinal observational study was conducted in patients over 18 years of age who were treated by the advanced life support unit and transferred to the emergency department between April and July 2018. We analyzed demographic variables as well as the physiological parameters and clinical observations necessary to complement the EWS. Subsequently, each patient was followed up, considering their final diagnosis and mortality data. A total of 349 patients were included in our study. Early mortality before the first 48 h affected 27 patients (7.7%). The scale with the best capacity to predict early mortality was the National Early Warning Score 2, with an area under the curve of 0.896 (95% CI 0.82-0.97). The score with the lowest global classification error was 10 points with sensitivity of 81.5% (95% CI 62.7-92.1) and specificity of 88.5% (95% CI 84.5-91.6). The early warning score studied (except modified early warning score) shows no statistically significant differences between them; however, the National Early Warning Score 2 is the most used score internationally, validated at the prehospital scope and with a wide scientific literature that supports its use. The Prehospital Emergency Medical Services should include this scale among their operative elements to complement the structured and objective evaluation of the critical patient.