PATIENTS AIR MEDICAL TRANPORT DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: A RETROSPECTIVE COHORT STUDY

INTRODUCTION: Air medical transport during the COVID-19 pandemic was essential for transferring critically-ill patients from distant geographic areas with scarce medical resources to specialized hospitals. The aim of this study was to comparatively analyze air transported patients with and without COVID-19 according to their clinical condition and complications that occurred during the flight. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study which analyzed the digital records of adult patients transported by fixed-wing aircraft from the interior of the state of Amazonas to the state capital Manaus, Brazil, from June 2019 to May 2021. Pearson’s chi-squared, Fisher’s exact and Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney tests were applied in the data analysis with a significance level p<.05. RESULTS: The sample consisted of 741 patients (60.59% men, median age 54 years). The incidence of complications during the flight was 7.28%, with emphasis on dyspnea, psychomotor agitation and pain. There was a significant difference between patients with (n = 466) and without COVID-19 (n = 275) regarding the variables age (p<.001), comorbidities (p<.001), body mass index (p<.001), impact (p<.001) and priority (p =.002) of the transfer, physiological severity (p<.001), use of vasoactive drugs when boarding the aircraft (p =.033) and occurrence of respiratory complications during air medical transport (p =.003). DISCUSSION: Patients with COVID-19 were older, had more comorbidities and were severely ill, had higher body mass index, frequency of vasoactive drug use and respiratory complications. Although there are minimal differences among these patients who are transported for higher level care, the role that inter-hospital transfer plays in reducing burden on local, less well-equipped hospitals is a primary role of medical transport, particularly during pandemics.