Emergency department outcome of elderly patients assisted by professional home services, the EPIGER study.

BACKGROUND: For the elderly population living at home, the implementation of professional services tends to mitigate the effect of loss of autonomy and increases their quality of life. While helping in avoiding social isolation, home services could also be associated to different healthcare pathways. For elderly patients, Emergency Departments (EDs) are the main entrance to hospital where previous loss of autonomy is associated to worst hospital outcomes. Part of elderly patients visiting EDs are still admitted to hospital for having difficulties coping at home without presenting any acute medical issue. There is a lack of data concerning elderly patients visiting EDs assisted by home services. Our aim was to compare among elderly patients visiting ED those assisted by professional home services to those who do not in terms of emergency resources' use and patients' outcome. METHODS: A multicenter, prospective cohort study was performed in 124 French EDs during a 24-h period on March 2016.Consecutive patients living at home aged ≥80 years were included. The primary objective was to assess the risk of mortality for patients assisted by professional home services vs. those who were not. Secondary objectives included admission rate and specific admission rate for "having difficulties coping at home". The primary endpoint was in-hospital mortality. Cox proportional-hazards regression model was used to test the association between professional home services and the primary endpoint. Multi variables logistic regressions were performed to assess secondary endpoints. RESULTS: One thousand one hundred sixty-eight patients were included, median age 86(83-89) years old,32% were assisted by professional home services. The overall in-hospital mortality rate was 7%. Assisted patients had more investigations performed. Home services were not associated with increased in-hospital mortality (HR = 1.34;95%CI [0.68-2.67]), nor with the admission rate (OR = 0.92;95%CI [0.65-1.30]). Assisted patients had a lower risk of being admitted for "having difficulties coping at home" (OR = 0.59;95%CI [0.38-0.92]). CONCLUSION: Professional home services which assist one-third of elderly patients visiting EDs, were not associated to lower in-hospital mortality or to an increased admission rate. Assisted patients were associated to a lower risk of being admitted for «having difficulties coping at home¼.Professional home services could result in avoiding some admissions and their corollary complications. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrial.gov - NCT02900391 , 09/14/2016, retrospectively registered.

Effect of Bag-Mask Ventilation vs Endotracheal Intubation During Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation on Neurological Outcome After Out-of-Hospital Cardiorespiratory Arrest: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Bag-mask ventilation (BMV) is a less complex technique than endotracheal intubation (ETI) for airway management during the advanced cardiac life support phase of cardiopulmonary resuscitation of patients with out-of-hospital cardiorespiratory arrest. It has been reported as superior in terms of survival. Objectives: To assess noninferiority of BMV vs ETI for advanced airway management with regard to survival with favorable neurological function at day 28. Design, Settings, and Participants: Multicenter randomized clinical trial comparing BMV with ETI in 2043 patients with out-of-hospital cardiorespiratory arrest in France and Belgium. Enrollment occurred from March 9, 2015, to January 2, 2017, and follow-up ended January 26, 2017. Intervention: Participants were randomized to initial airway management with BMV (n = 1020) or ETI (n = 1023). Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary outcome was favorable neurological outcome at 28 days defined as cerebral performance category 1 or 2. A noninferiority margin of 1% was chosen. Secondary end points included rate of survival to hospital admission, rate of survival at day 28, rate of return of spontaneous circulation, and ETI and BMV difficulty or failure. Results: Among 2043 patients who were randomized (mean age, 64.7 years; 665 women [32%]), 2040 (99.8%) completed the trial. In the intention-to-treat population, favorable functional survival at day 28 was 44 of 1018 patients (4.3%) in the BMV group and 43 of 1022 patients (4.2%) in the ETI group (difference, 0.11% [1-sided 97.5% CI, -1.64% to infinity]; P for noninferiority = .11). Survival to hospital admission (294/1018 [28.9%] in the BMV group vs 333/1022 [32.6%] in the ETI group; difference, -3.7% [95% CI, -7.7% to 0.3%]) and global survival at day 28 (55/1018 [5.4%] in the BMV group vs 54/1022 [5.3%] in the ETI group; difference, 0.1% [95% CI, -1.8% to 2.1%]) were not significantly different. Complications included difficult airway management (186/1027 [18.1%] in the BMV group vs 134/996 [13.4%] in the ETI group; difference, 4.7% [95% CI, 1.5% to 7.9%]; P = .004), failure (69/1028 [6.7%] in the BMV group vs 21/996 [2.1%] in the ETI group; difference, 4.6% [95% CI, 2.8% to 6.4%]; P < .001), and regurgitation of gastric content (156/1027 [15.2%] in the BMV group vs 75/999 [7.5%] in the ETI group; difference, 7.7% [95% CI, 4.9% to 10.4%]; P < .001). Conclusions and Relevance: Among patients with out-of-hospital cardiorespiratory arrest, the use of BMV compared with ETI failed to demonstrate noninferiority or inferiority for survival with favorable 28-day neurological function, an inconclusive result. A determination of equivalence or superiority between these techniques requires further research. Trial Registration: clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT02327026.

Long-term prognosis after out-of-hospital resuscitation of cardiac arrest in trauma patients: prehospital trauma-associated cardiac arrest.

BACKGROUND: Although prehospital cardiac arrest (CA) remains associated with poor long-term outcome, recent studies show an improvement in the survival rate after prehospital trauma associated CA (TCA). However, data on the long-term neurological outcome of TCA, particularly from physician-staffed Emergency Medical Service (EMS), are scarce, and results reported have been inconsistent. The objective of this pilot study was to evaluate the long-term outcome of patients admitted to several trauma centres after a TCA. METHODS: This study is a retrospective database review of all patients from a multicentre prospective registry that experienced a TCA and had undergone successful cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) prior their admission at the trauma centre. The primary end point was neurological outcome at 6 months among patients who survived to hospital discharge. RESULTS: 88 victims of TCA underwent successful CPR and were admitted to the hospital, 90% of whom were victims of blunt trauma. Of these 88 patients, 10 patients (11%; CI 95% 6% to 19%) survived to discharge: on discharge, 9 patients displayed a GCS of 15 and Cerebral Performance Categories (CPC) 1-2 and one patient had a GCS 7 and CPC of 3. Hypoxia was the most frequent cause of CA among survivors. 6-month follow-up was achieved for 9 patients of the 10 surviving patients. The 9 patients with a good outcome on hospital discharge had a CPC of 1 or 2 6 months post discharge. All returned to their premorbid family and social settings. CONCLUSIONS: Among patients admitted to hospital after successful CPR from TCA, hypoxia as the likely aetiology of arrest carried a more favourable prognosis. Most of the patients successfully resuscitated from TCA and surviving to hospital discharge had a good neurological outcome, suggesting that prehospital resuscitation may not be futile.

Tracheal intubation related complications in the prehospital setting.

BACKGROUND: Prehospital tracheal intubation (TI) is associated with morbidity and mortality, particularly in cases of difficult intubation. The goal of the present study was to describe factors associated with TI related complications in the prehospital setting. METHODS: This was a prospective cohort study including all patients intubated on scene in a prehospital emergency medical service over a 4 year period. TI related complications included oxygen desaturation, aspiration, vomiting, bronchospasm and/or laryngospasm, and mechanical complications (mainstem intubation, oesophageal intubation and airway lesion- that is, dental or laryngeal trauma caused by the laryngoscope). Difficult intubation was defined as >2 failed laryngoscopic attempts, or the need for any alternative TI method. A multivariate logistic regression was used to identify the risk factors for TI related complications. RESULTS: 1251 patients were included; 208 complications occurred in 165 patients (13.1%). Among the 208 complications, the most frequent were oesophageal intubation (n=69, 29.7%), desaturation (n=58, 25.0%) and mainstem intubation (n=37, 15.9%). In multivariate analysis, difficult intubation (OR=6.13, 3.93 to 9.54), Cormack and Lehane grades 3 and 4 (OR=2.23, 1.26 to 3.96 for Cormack and Lehane grade 3 and OR=2.61, 1.28 to 5.33 for Cormack and Lehane grade 4 compared with Cormack and Lehane grade 1) and a body mass index >30 kg/m(2) (OR=2.22, 1.38 to 3.56) were significantly associated with TI related complications. CONCLUSIONS: Despite specific guidelines, TI related complications are more frequent in the prehospital setting when intubation is deemed difficult, the Cormack and Lehane grade is greater than grade 1 and the patient is overweight. In such situations, particular attention is needed to avoid complications.

Use of bispectral index to monitor the depth of sedation in mechanically ventilated patients in the prehospital setting.

BACKGROUND: Sedative drug administration is a challenging aspect of the management of mechanically ventilated patients in the out-of-hospital critical care medicine. We hypothesised that the bispectral index of the EEG (BIS) could be a helpful tool in evaluating the depth of sedation in this difficult environment. The main objective of the present study was to assess the agreement of BIS with the clinical scales in the out-of-hospital setting. METHODS: This prospective study included mechanically ventilated patients. BIS values were blindly recorded continuously. A Ramsay score was performed every 5 min. The main judgement criterion was the correlation between BIS values and the Ramsay score. RESULTS: 72 patients were included, mostly presenting with toxic coma (36%) or neurological coma (21%). The median (IQR) BIS value was 85 (84-86) when the Ramsay score was 3, 80 (76-84) when the Ramsay score was 4, 61 (55-80) when the Ramsay score was 5 and 45 (38-60) when the Ramsay score was 6. According to Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, BIS was categorised into three classes (BIS<54 corresponding to Ramsay score 6, 54≤BIS<72 for Ramsay score 5 and BIS≥73 for Ramsay score ≤4). Based on these categories, the proportion of appropriate BIS values was 67% (217/323). The concordance correlation coefficient for repeated measurements was 0.54 (0.43-0.64). The agreement between BIS and the Ramsay score is moderate. CONCLUSIONS: Prehospital measured BIS values appear poorly correlated with clinical assessment of the depth of sedation. For this reason, the use of BIS to guide prehospital sedation cannot be recommended.

Nonurgent commercial air travel after nonhemorrhagic cerebrovascular accident.

Nonurgent commercial air travel in patients who have experienced a nonhemorrhagic cerebrovascular accident (CVA) may occur, particularly in the elderly traveling population. A recent CVA, particularly occurring during a person's travel, presents a significant challenge to the patient, companions, family, and health care team. Specific medical recommendation, based on accumulated scientific data and interpreted by medical experts, is needed so that travel health care professionals can appropriately guide the patient. Unfortunately, such recommendations are almost entirely lacking despite the relative frequency of CVA and air travel. This article reviews the existing recommendations with conclusions based on both these limited data and rationale conjecture.

Air travel of patients with abdominal aortic aneurysm: urgent air medical evacuation and nonurgent commercial air repatriation.

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) presents across a spectrum of severity. Although some resources suggest a theoretic risk for rupture related to air travel, this claim remains unproven. In fact, there are little data from which to make evidence-based recommendations. Air medical evacuation of a patient with either an AAA at risk of imminent rupture or status post recent rupture can be performed, assuming that local surgical care is not available and that transfer is taking the patient to a higher level of medical intervention. Furthermore, medical opinion suggests that patients with asymptomatic and/or surgically corrected AAA can safely travel by commercial aircraft for nonurgent reasons, assuming that other issues including postoperative needs are appropriately addressed. In this discussion, answers to the following issues are sought: flight safety for urgent evacuation and nonurgent repatriation scenarios, waiting time to fly nonurgently after AAA diagnosis, and the need for medical accompaniment.

Family witnessed resuscitation: nationwide survey of 337 prehospital emergency teams in France.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the practices and opinions of prehospital emergency medical services (EMS) with regard to family witnessed resuscitation (FWR) and to analyse the differences between physicians' and nurses' responses. DESIGN: An anonymous questionnaire (30 yes/no questions on demographics and FWR) was sent to all prehospital emergency staff (physicians, nurses and support staff) working for the 377 Mobile Intensive Care Units in France. RESULTS: Of the 2689 responses received 2664 were analysed. Mean respondent age was 38 ± 8 years, the male to female ratio was 1:2. 87% of respondents had already performed FWR and 38% had offered relatives the option to be present during resuscitation. Most respondents (90%) felt that FWR might cause psychological trauma to the family; 70% thought that FWR might impact on the duration of resuscitation and 68% on EMS team concentration. In the 28% of cases when relatives had asked to be present, 59% of respondents had acquiesced but only 27% were willing to invite relatives to be routinely present. CONCLUSIONS: Prehospital EMS teams in France seems to support FWR but are not yet ready to offer it systematically to relatives. Following our survey, written guidelines are currently in development in our department. These guidelines could be the first step of a national strategy for developing FWR in France. We await results from other studies of family members' opinions to compare prehospital practitioners' and family members' views to further develop our practice.

Response time evaluation for emergency medical service as a part of its performance.

The study aimed to evaluate the response time (RT) of a French physician-staffed emergency medical service unit in both first-line and second-line service zones a part of its performance and how best to integrate it into its geographical specificity and showed acceptable RTs (mostly <10 min). Interestingly, because of the particular location next to other districts, RTs are in the same range for some municipalities that are adjacent to the first-line and area. In a new system in which catching areas would not only be based on administrative criteria anymore but also on performance evaluation, RTs for emergency medical service might be optimised.

Commercial aircraft repatriation of patients with pneumothorax.

The transfer of patients with a pneumothorax via a commercial airline involves many medical, aeronautic, and regulatory considerations. In an attempt to further investigate these issues, we reviewed the medical records of 32 patient cases with a pneumothorax who were repatriated on commercial aircrafts. Sixteen patients were transferred with the thoracostomy tube in place and were escorted by medical personnel at an average of 5 days (interquartile range [IQR], 4-7 days) from diagnosis. Five patients without initial intercostal drainage (who either showed very limited air collection or underwent immediate surgical treatment) were all escorted by a physician at an average of 24 days (IQR, 18-25 days) of diagnosis. Eleven patients were transferred without medical escort aboard a commercial flight after removal of the chest tube at an average of 15 days (IQR, 9-17 days) of the diagnosis. This case review suggests that physicians recommend and follow markedly different management plans for the patient with a pneumothorax who is being transferred nonurgently by a commercial airliner. This differing practice management also is noted in the various existing specialty and industry guidelines, which are not evidence based; our review shows that poor agreement exists not only in these various guidelines but also among medical practitioners.

Commercial air travel after pneumothorax: a review of the literature.

Because of the physiological stresses of commercial air travel, the presence of a pneumothorax has long been felt to be an absolute contraindication to flight. Additionally, most medical societies recommend that patients wait at least 2 weeks after radiographic resolution of the pneumothorax before they attempt to travel in a nonurgent fashion via commercial air transport. This review sought to survey the current body of literature on this topic to determine if a medical consensus exists; furthermore, this review considered the scientific support, if any, supporting these recommendations. In this review, we found a paucity of data on the issue and noted only a handful of prospective and retrospective studies; thus, true evidence-based recommendations are difficult to develop at this time. We have made recommendations, when possible, addressing the nonurgent commercial air travel for the patient with a recent pneumothorax. However, more scientific research is necessary in order to reach an evidence-based conclusion on pneumothoraces and flying.

K-plan for patient repatriation after mass casualty events abroad.

In addition to requests for individual aeromedical evacuation (AE), medical assistance companies also may respond to mass casualty incidents abroad. The purpose of this report was to evaluate the effectiveness of our primary casualty plan, based on experience involving a January 2010 bus crash in southern Egypt. The main evaluative criterion was time elapsed from the initial call until the return of victims to their home country. Three critically injured patients underwent an initial AE to Cairo for advanced trauma care. After stabilization, they arrived back in their home country 42 hours after the initial call. The remaining group of patients arrived 27 hours later, or a total of 69 hours after the first call. These findings suggest that the "K-Plan" standardized operating process may be effective for rapid and appropriate repatriation of numerous victims. Some specific issues, such as efficiently locating a large-capacity charter aircraft, require further improvement.

Air medical repatriation: compassionate and palliative care consideration during transport.

As the world's population ages, the number of elderly and very elderly international travelers continues to increases. Many of these travelers are afflicted with multiple, often severe, medical conditions; in fact, a significant portion of these elderly travelers are considered end stage with respect to their disease state. While traveling, they are exposed to travel hazards and deterioration of their already compromised health. Once acute illness or injury occurs, medically appropriate, compassionate repatriation of these elderly patients is associated with a range of complex challenges. In this series, we present 4 cases that demonstrate these challenges.

Evaluation of a specific score for air medical evacuation triage.

Age, local resources, and locations have been identified as independent factors indicating the need for immediate air medical evacuation. This preliminary case-control study aimed to evaluate the relevance of a score from 0 to 6 based on these criteria and to identify thresholds. The 3-step scale we obtained may help in prioritizing repatriation requests.

Fetal monitoring in the prehospital setting.

BACKGROUND: Prehospital emergency care providers have very little information regarding fetal perfusion adequacy in the field. OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to evaluate the feasibility of the use of fetal monitoring in the prehospital setting. METHODS: A mobile cardiotocometer was used for all consecutive pregnant women managed by our physician-staffed Emergency Medical Services unit. The visualization of interpretable tracings (both fetal heart rate and tocography) at the different stages of prehospital management was evaluated. Any change in a patient's management was also recorded. RESULTS: There were 145 patients enrolled during 119 inter-hospital transfers and 26 primary prehospital interventions. Interpretable tracings were obtained for 81% of the patients during the initial examination. This rate decreased to 66% during handling and transfer procedures. For 17 patients (12%), the monitoring led to a change in the patient's management. CONCLUSION: This study shows that cardiotocography can be easily performed in the prehospital setting, and is usually feasible. Moreover, the study demonstrates a positive impact of fetal heart rate monitoring on prehospital management.

Prognostic value of prehospital quick sequential organ failure assessment score among patients with suspected infection.

OBJECTIVE: After the third international consensus on sepsis released its new definitions, the prognostic value of quick sequential organ failure assessment (qSOFA) score has been confirmed in the emergency department. However, its validity in the prehospital setting remains unknown. The objective of the study was to assess its accuracy for prehospital patients cared by emergency physician-staffed ambulances (services mobiles d'urgence et de réanimation SMUR). PATIENTS AND METHODS: This was a prospective observational multicenter cohort study (N = 6). All consecutive patients with prehospital clinical suspicion of infection by the emergency physician of the SMUR emergency medical service were included. Components of qSOFA were collected, and the patients were followed until hospital discharge. The primary end point was in-hospital mortality, censored at 28 days. Secondary end points included ICU admission longer than 72 h and a composite of 'death or ICU stay more than 72 h'. RESULTS: We screened 342 patients and included 332 in the analysis. Their mean age was 73 years, 159 (48%) were women, and the most common site of infection was respiratory (73% of cases). qSOFA was at least 2 in 133 (40%) patients. The overall in-hospital mortality was 27%: 41% in patients with qSOFA of at least 2 versus 18% for qSOFA less than 2 (absolute difference 23%; 95% confidence interval: 13-33%, P < 0.001). The overall discrimination for qSOFA was poor, with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.69 (95% confidence interval: 0.62-0.74). CONCLUSION: In this large multicenter study, prehospital qSOFA presents a strong association with mortality in infected patient, though with poor prognostic performances in our severely ill sample.

Withholding advanced cardiac life support in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: a prospective study.

AIM OF THE STUDY: To evaluate the decision criteria leading to refrain from starting cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in the prehospital setting. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a prospective, descriptive study, in a physician-staffed emergency medical service during a 12 month period. All patients presenting with a cardiac arrest were included. Patients were allocated to two groups: immediate decision to give CPR (R group) or withholding CPR (NR group). Characteristics of patients including previous health status, time intervals, therapies and outcomes, were collected. Data were compared between the two groups, *p<0.05. RESULTS: One hundred and fourteen patients (aged 61+/-18 years) were enrolled in R group and 113 (73+/-19 years*) in NR group. Patients of NR group more frequently presented with a deterioration of functional independence (51% versus 10%*), cognitive impairment (21% versus 8%*) and higher McCabe score and Knaus class (McCabe 2: 24% versus 2%*; Knaus class D: 23% versus 3%*). Presence of a bystander (75% versus 44%*) or basic life support (BLS) started by the bystander (40% versus 12%*) were more frequent in R than NR. Age (OR, 1.1; 95% CI, 1.0-1.1), McCabe score >0 (OR, 10.5; 95% CI, 1.4-79.0), lack of bystander BLS (OR, 11.2; 95% CI, 2.2-60.7) and ineffectiveness of BLS by EMTs (OR, 12.1; 95% CI, 2.0-72.8) were independent factors of withholding CPR. The physician conducted often the discussion alone (48%). CONCLUSION: Decision criteria leading to refrain from starting CPR in the prehospital setting are age, previous health status and initial BLS. Further thought should be allowed to ensure a share in the decision-making process in this particular practice.