The Usefulness of Physician-Staffed Helicopters for Managing Severe Abdominal Trauma Patients

INTRODUCTION: We retrospectively investigated prognostic factors for severe abdominal trauma patients evacuated by a physician-staffed helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) and ground ambulance using the Japan Trauma Data Bank (JTDB). METHODS: The study period was from January 2004 to May 2019. The subjects were divided into two groups, according to the type of outcome: the Mortality group, which included patients who ultimately died, and the Survival group, which included patients who obtained a survival outcome. RESULTS: There were 2457 in the Mortality group and 11,326 in the Survival group. When variables that showed statistical significance in the univariate analysis were included in a multivariate analysis, the following variables were identified as significant positive predictors of a fatal outcome: evacuation from the scene, blunt injury, injury severity score, and age; significant negative predictors of a fatal outcome were transportation by the HEMS and revised trauma score. CONCLUSIONS: The present study described the usefulness of the HEMS for severe abdominal trauma patients in comparison with ground ambulance transportation using the JTDB.