Prehospital Life-Saving Interventions Performed on Pediatric Patients in a Combat Zone: A Multicenter Prospective Study.

OBJECTIVES: We aimed to describe and evaluate prehospital life-saving interventions performed in a pediatric population in the Afghanistan theater of operations. DESIGN: Our study was a post hoc, subanalysis of a larger multicenter, prospective, observational study. SETTING: We evaluated casualties enrolled upon admission to one of the nine military medical facilities in Afghanistan between January 2009 and March 2014. PATIENTS: Adult and pediatric (<17 yr old) patients. MEASUREMENTS: We conducted initial descriptive analyses followed by comparative tests. For comparative analysis, we stratified the study population (adult vs pediatric), and subsequently, we compared injury descriptions and the interventions performed. Following tests for normality, we used the t test or Wilcoxon rank-sum test (nonparametric) for continuous variables and chi-square or Fisher exact for categorical variables. We reported percentages and 95% CIs. MAIN RESULTS: We enrolled 2,106 patients, of which 5.6% (n = 118) were pediatric. Eighty-two percent of the pediatric patients were male, and 435 had blast related injuries. A total of 295 prehospital life-saving interventions were performed on 118 pediatric patients, for an average of 2.5 life-saving interventions per patient. Vascular access (IV 96%, intraosseous 91%) and hypothermia prevention-related interventions (69%) were the most common. Incorrectly performed life-saving interventions in pediatric patients were rare (98% of life-saving interventions performed correctly) and n equals to 24 life-saving interventions over the 6-year period were missed. The most common incorrectly performed and missed life-saving interventions were related to vascular access. When compared with adult life-saving interventions received in the prehospital environment, pediatric patients were more likely to receive intraosseous access (p < 0.0001), whereas adult patients were more likely to have a tourniquet placed (p = 0.0019), receive wound packing with a hemostatic agent (p = 0.0091), and receive chest interventions (p = 0.0003). CONCLUSIONS: In our study, the most common intervention was vascular access followed by hypothermia prevention and hemorrhage control. The occurrence of missed or incorrectly performed life-saving interventions were rare.

Accelerated Resolution Therapy-Based Intervention in the Treatment of Acute Stress Reactions During Deployed Military Operations.

INTRODUCTION: The treatment and resolution of psychological traumas during military deployments directly supports medical readiness and the military mission and potentially prevents symptom progression to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, current evidence-based trauma-focused psychotherapies can be difficult to employ during military contingency operations due to various barriers. Deployed military behavioral health providers need an effective, trauma-focused intervention that is suitable for the operational environment. In this retrospective case series, we describe how a therapeutic intervention based on accelerated resolution therapy (ART), an emerging trauma-focused psychotherapy, was pivotal in the treatment of acute stress reactions in eight deployed U.S. Army soldiers. MATERIALS AND METHOD: ART can be conceptualized as a hybrid of several evidence-based psychotherapy techniques. In brief, ART is a manualized, procedural adaptation of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) that incorporates mindful awareness of emotions and sensations, bilateral eye movements, imaginal exposure, desensitization, visual and cognitive rescripting, and gestalt-style interventions for the processing of traumatic experiences. The eight deployed U.S. soldiers in this case series received a single 45 to 60 minute session of an ART-based intervention within 96 hours of a traumatic death. RESULTS: All of the treated soldiers had rapid improvement in both depressive and acute stress symptoms after treatment. Furthermore, the therapeutic benefits were sustained at 1 year postincident despite continued exposure to the stress of deployed military operations for up to 6 months after treatment. CONCLUSION: Based on these encouraging preliminary findings, the authors recommend that behavioral health providers who are preparing to deploy become familiar with ART or related interventions in order to develop the confidence and the skills that are needed to provide timely and effective trauma-focused care for deployed soldiers.