Neurosurgical Admission Later Than 4 h After the Emergency Call Does Not Result in Worse Long-Term Outcome in Subarachnoid Haemorrhage.

Background: Few studies have investigated the importance of the time interval between contact to the emergency medical service and neurosurgical admission in patients with spontaneous subarachnoid haemorrhage. We hypothesised that longer time to treatment would be associated with an increased risk of death or early retirement. Methods: This was a retrospective observational study with 4 years follow-up. Those who reached a neurosurgical department in fewer than 4 h were compared with those who reached it in more than 4 h. Individual level data were merged from the Danish National Patient Register, medical records, the Copenhagen Emergency Medical Dispatch Centre, the Civil Registration System, and the Ministry of Employment and Statistics Denmark. Patients were ≥18 years and had a verified diagnosis of spontaneous subarachnoid haemorrhage. The primary outcome was death or early retirement after 4 years. Results: Two hundred sixty-two patients admitted within a three-and-a-half-year time period were identified. Data were available in 124 patients, and 61 of them were in their working age. Four-year all-cause mortality was 25.8%. No significant association was found between time to neurosurgical admission and risk of death or early retirement (OR = 0.35, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.10-1.23, p = 0.10). Conclusion: We did not find an association between the time from emergency telephone call to neurosurgical admission and the risk of death or early retirement.

The Role of a Physician-Staffed Helicopter in Emergency Care of Patients on Isolated Danish Islands.

Emergency calls may lead to the dispatch of either ground ambulances or helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS). For residents on isolated islands, the HEMS can reduce the time to hospital admission and lead to improved outcomes. This study investigated the emergency care for residents on isolated islands with a focus on the role of a physician-staffed helicopter. The data were obtained from Danish national registries and databases. We included data on emergency calls from isolated islands from the time of emergency call to discharge. We identified 1130 emergency calls from which 775 patients were registered with a hospital admission. Of these, 41% were transported by the HEMS and 36% by a ground ambulance. The median time to admission was 83 min (IQR 66-104) and 90 min (IQR 45-144) for the HEMS and ground ambulance, respectively (p = 0.26). The overall 30-day mortality was 6.2% (95% CI: 4.6-8.1%), and 37% of all the patients were admitted to the hospital with an unspecified diagnosis. The emergency calls from isolated islands led to the dispatch of the HEMS in 41% of the cases. The use of the HEMS did not significantly reduce the time to admission but was used in a greater proportion of patients with an acute cardiac disease (66%) or stroke (67%).

Criteria-based dispatch of emergency medical services in non-traumatic subarachnoid haemorrhage.

INTRODUCTION: Timely admission to a facility capable of providing highly specialised treatment is key in patients with spontaneous subarachnoid haemorrhage. We aimed to determine the time elapsed from the initial emergency telephone call to arrival at a neurosurgical department. Also, we aimed to determine the ambulance dispatch criteria used and the activated prehospital responses. METHODS: This was a retrospective study. Patients admitted in the Capital Region of Denmark within a 3.5-year period were identified in the Danish National Patient Register. Data were extracted from medical records and from automated telephone logs at the Emergency Medical Dispatch Centre. RESULTS: Time intervals were available in 124 out of 262 patients and ambulance dispatch criteria in 98 patients. The median time from call to neurosurgical admission was 207.5 minutes. The dispatch criterion sudden severe headache had a sensitivity of 17.4%. An ambulance with lights and sirens was dispatched to 77% of patients and 28% were brought directly to a hospital with neurosurgical facilities. CONCLUSIONS: The median time from emergency call to neurosurgical admission was 3.5 hours. No single dispatch criterion detected the condition with an acceptable sensitivity. A high proportion of patients received an ambulance with lights and sirens, but more than two out of three were not initially brought to a hospital with neurosurgical facilities. FUNDING: the non-profit organisation Trygfonden Trial registration: NCT03786068 - www.clinicaltrials.gov.

Symptoms presented during emergency telephone calls for patients with spontaneous subarachnoid haemorrhage.

BACKGROUND: A spontaneous subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) is one of the most critical neurological emergencies a dispatcher can face in an emergency telephone call. No study has yet investigated which symptoms are presented in emergency telephone calls for these patients. We aimed to identify symptoms indicative of SAH and to determine the sensitivity of these and their association (odds ratio, OR) with SAH. METHODS: This was a nested case-control study based on all telephone calls to the medical dispatch center of Copenhagen Emergency Medical Services in a 4-year time period. Patients with SAH were identified in the Danish National Patient Register; diagnoses were verified by medical record review and their emergency telephone call audio files were extracted. Audio files were replayed, and symptoms extracted in a standardized manner. Audio files of a control group were replayed and assessed as well. RESULTS: We included 224 SAH patients and 609 controls. Cardiac arrest and persisting unconsciousness were reported in 5.8% and 14.7% of SAH patients, respectively. The highest sensitivity was found for headache (58.9%), nausea/vomiting (46.9%) and neck pain (32.6%). Among conscious SAH patients these symptoms were found to have the strongest association with SAH (OR 27.0, 8.41 and 34.0, respectively). Inability to stand up, speech difficulty, or sweating were reported in 24.6%, 24.2%, and 22.8%. The most frequent combination of symptoms was headache and nausea/vomiting, which was reported in 41.6% of SAH patients. More than 90% of headaches were severe, but headache was not reported in 29.7% of conscious SAH patients. In these, syncope was described by 49.1% and nausea/vomiting by 37.7%. CONCLUSION: Headache, nausea/vomiting, and neck pain had the highest sensitivity and strongest association with SAH in emergency telephone calls. Unspecific symptoms such as inability to stand up, speech difficulty or sweating were reported in 1 out of 5 calls. Interestingly, 1 in 3 conscious SAH patients did not report headache. Trial registration NCT03980613 ( www.clinicaltrials.gov ).

Search and Rescue Helicopters for Emergency Medical Service Assistance: A Retrospective Study.

OBJECTIVE: The time until treatment is a crucial factor for the outcome after medical emergencies. One way of reducing transportation time is the use of helicopter-based emergency medical services, but poor weather conditions, commitment to another mission, or technical problems may limit the availability. In these cases, military search and rescue (SAR) helicopters can be used. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of SAR helicopters in the civilian emergency medical system. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective study of SAR mission reports and SAR medical records collected from the archives of the Royal Danish Air Force for the years 2016 and 2017. RESULTS: A total of 1,262 mission reports were included with a total of 628 medical records available in the study period. There were 490 of 1,246 (39.3%) missions involving patients. Interhospital transfers accounted for 306 of 604 (50.7%) of cases, whereas island evacuation constituted 110 of 604 (18.2%) cases. The most prevalent suspected diagnosis was acute coronary syndrome (14.4%). The 30-day survival rate was 87.6%. CONCLUSION: The military SAR helicopters were most commonly activated for civilian emergency medical service mission assistance due to poor weather conditions. The most frequent medical condition was acute coronary syndrome.

Spontaneous Subarachnoid Haemorrhage as a Cause of Out-of-Hospital Death.

BACKGROUND: There are no recent studies on the incidence rate of out-of-hospital death due to spontaneous subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH). The primary aim of this study was to determine how often SAH was the cause of out-of-hospital death. The secondary aim was to determine if decedents had contacted any health care services within the last 72 h prior to the time of death. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study. The reports of all autopsies carried out at the Department of Forensic Medicine in the Capital Region of Denmark in a ten-year period were read. Police records and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) telephone records were searched for health care contacts within the last 72 h prior to the time of death. Descriptive statistics were used, and to analyse the incidence rates for trend Poisson regression was used. RESULTS: In total, 6,903 decedents underwent autopsy. Out-of-hospital SAH was the cause of death in 58 decedents, resulting in an average incidence rate of 0.34 per 100.000 persons per year. No significant change in the incidence rate over time was found (p = 0.52). No EMS data were available for eleven decedents in the first part of the study period. Of the remaining 47 decedents, 2 (3.5%, 95% CI: 0.4-11.9) had called the EMS, and in regards to 27 of the 58 decedents, the police records contained information on health care system contacts. Five (8.6%, 95% CI: 2.9-18.9) patients had contacted a general practitioner and three (5.2%, 95% CI: 1.1-14.4) patients had been admitted to hospital but were discharged again within 72 h prior to their death. CONCLUSION: The incidence rate of out-of-hospital death from SAH was 0.34 per 100.000 persons per year and remained stable across the years 2009-2018. Several patients had sought medical attention shortly before their death, emphasizing the vital importance of recognizing the early symptoms of SAH.

The positive predictive value of spontaneous subarachnoid hemorrhage diagnoses in the Danish National Patient Register.

Introduction: Spontaneous (non-traumatic) subarachnoid hemorrhage (ntSAH) is frequently suspected in the emergency department, but the incidence rate is low. Diagnosis registers can provide valuable data for research in uncommon conditions like ntSAH. Unfortunately, validity vary in the registers. We aimed to assess the validity of the ntSAH diagnosis in the Danish National Patient Register (DNPR) and secondly to describe patients misclassified as ntSAH and to calculate the incidence rate of ntSAH. Methods: From the DNPR we extracted information on patients at least 18 years of age on admission registered with a diagnosis of ntSAH and admitted to a hospital in the Capital Region of Denmark between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2014. Two independent investigators reviewed the medical records to assess if the diagnosis could be confirmed. Those not confirmed were categorized according to a predeveloped case report form. Results: We identified 1101 patients with a diagnosis of ntSAH; medical records were accessible for 1069 (97.7%) and 842 (78.8%) met the inclusion criteria. The diagnosis was confirmed in 537 patients (63.8% (95% confidence interval: 60.5-67.0%)). Among patients where ntSAH was not confirmed, 122 (40.0%) had a traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage (tSAH), ntSAH had been suspected in 57 (18.9%) patients but was not substantiated during admission, while parenchymal hemorrhages were identified in 45 (14.5%) patients. The incidence rate was 5.5 (95% CI: 4.9-6.1) per 100,000 persons per year. Conclusion: We found a positive predictive value (PPV) of 63.8% for the diagnosis of non-traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage in the Danish National Patient Register. The low PPV suggests that care should be taken if unvalidated data are used for research and that results of previous studies should be interpreted with caution.

Prehospital interventions before and after implementation of a physician-staffed helicopter.

INTRODUCTION: Implementation of a physician-staffed helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) in eastern Denmark was associated with increased survival for severely injured patients. This study aimed to assess the potential impact of advanced prehospital interventions by comparing the proportion of patients who received those interventions before and after the HEMS implementation. METHODS: A post-hoc analysis of a prospective before-after study. We included trauma patients with Injury Severity Scores above three who had been admitted to seven emergency departments or one level 1 trauma centre in the course of a five-month period before and a 12-month period after the HEMS implementation. We compared the proportion of patients receiving at least one of 14 predefined advanced interventions between the two periods. RESULTS: We included 189 patients before and 548 patients after the implementation. The proportion of patients who had interventions done increased from 24.3% to 36.1% (difference (95% confidence limits (CL)): 11.9% (4.6-19.3%); p = 0.003). In patients with a Glasgow Coma Scale score below nine and/or an Abbreviated Injury Score above three in the head region, endotracheal intubation was done prior to hospital arrival in 28.1% (9/32) before versus 48.6% (35/72) after (difference (CL): 20.5% (1.1-39.9%)). The proportion of patients who received opioids increased from 11.1% to 21.8% (p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: A higher proportion of trauma patients received advanced prehospital interventions after the implementation of a physician-staffed HEMS. FUNDING: Funding for this study was received from TrygFonden. TRIAL REGISTRATION: not relevant.