Low oxygen saturation is associated with pre-hospital mortality among non-traumatic patients using emergency medical services: A national database of Thailand

BACKGROUND: Pre-hospital emergency medical services are an important network for Emergency Medicine. It has been shown to reduce morbidity and mortality of patients by medical procedures. The Thai government established pre-hospital emergency medical services in 2008 to improve emergency medical care. Since then, there are limited data at the national level on mortality rates with pre-hospital care and the risk factors associated with mortality in non-traumatic patients. AIMS: To study the pre-hospital mortality rate and factors associated with mortality in non-traumatic patients using the emergency medical service in Thailand. METHODS: This study retrieved medical data from the National Institute for Emergency Medicine, NIEMS. The inclusion criteria were adult patients above the age of 15 who received medical services by the emergency medical services in Thailand (except Bangkok) from April 1st, 2011 to March 31st, 2012. Patients were excluded if there was no treatment during pre-hospital period, if they were trauma patients, or if their medical data was incomplete. Patients were categorized as either in the survival or non-survival group. Factors associated with mortality were examined by multivariate logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: During the study period, there were 127,602 non-traumatic patients who used pre-hospital emergency medical services in Thailand. Of those, 98,587 patients met the study criteria. For the statistical analyses, there were 66,760 patients who had complete clinical investigations. The mortality rate in this group was 1.89%. Only oxygen saturation was associated with mortality by multivariate logistic regression analysis. The adjusted OR was 0.922 (95% CI 0.8550.994). CONCLUSION: Low oxygen saturation is significantly associated with pre-hospital mortality in a national database of non-traumatic patients using emergency medical services in Thailand. During pre-hospital care, oxygen level should be monitored and promptly treated. Pulse oximetry devices should be available in all pre-hospital services.