Table 1.
Patient characteristics
| Characteristics (n = 1776) | median [ quartiles] / n (percentage) | N missing |
|---|---|---|
| Demographic data and Injury Severity | ||
| Age (years) | 45 [23, 65] | 20 (1.1%) |
| Male sex [N (%)] | 1247 (70.3%) | 3 (0.2%) |
| Mechanism of injury | 29 (1.6%) | |
| Traffic—motor vehicle | 311 (17.8%) | |
| Traffic—motorcycle | 163 (9.3%) | |
| Traffic—bicycle | 389 (22.3%) | |
| Traffic—pedestrian | 123 (7%) | |
| Traffic—other | 53 (3%) | |
| Fall from height | 600 (34.3%) | |
| Gunshot or stab injury | 34 (2%) | |
| Other | 74 (4.2%) | |
| Injury Severity Score | 26 [19, 35] | 202 (11.4%) |
| Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) at arrival of HEMS | 4 [3, 7] | 0 (0%) |
| Motor response component of the CGS | 2 [1, 4] | 0 (0%) |
| Pupils equal and reactive to light (N (%)) | 756 (49.8%) | 258 (14.5%) |
| Abbreviated Injury Scale Score—Head | 202 (11.4%) | |
| No head injury | 74 (4.7%) | |
| 1 | 68 (4.3%) | |
| 2 | 92 (5.8%) | |
| 3 | 222 (14.1%) | |
| 4 | 456 (29%) | |
| 5 | 650 (41.3%) | |
| 6 | 12 (0.8%) | |
| Abbreviated Injury Scale Score—Face | ||
| < 3 or no injury | 1460 (92.8%) | |
| ≥ 3 | 114 (7.2%) | |
| Abbreviated Injury Scale Score—Neck | ||
| < 3 or no injury | 1547 (98.3%) | |
| ≥ 3 | 27 (1.7%) | |
| Abbreviated Injury Scale Score—Spine | ||
| < 3 or no injury | 1418 (90.1%) | |
| ≥ 3 | 156 (9.9%) | |
| Abbreviated Injury Scale Score—Thorax | ||
| < 3 or no injury | 974 (61.9%) | |
| ≥ 3 | 600 (38.1%) | |
| Abbreviated Injury Scale Score—Abdomen | ||
| < 3 or no injury | 1461 (92.8%) | |
| ≥ 3 | 113 (7.2%) | |
| Abbreviated Injury Scale Score—Upper extremity | ||
| < 3 or no injury | 1513 (96.1%) | |
| ≥ 3 | 61 (3.9%) | |
| Abbreviated Injury Scale Score—Lower extremity | ||
| < 3 or no injury | 1344 (85.4%) | |
| ≥ 3 | 230 (14.6%) |
| Prehospital observations and Airway management | ||
|---|---|---|
| Respiratory rate at primary survey | 101 (5.7%) | |
| Normal | 1242 (74.2%) | |
| Tachypnea (> 29/min) | 68 (4.1%) | |
| Bradypnea (6–9/min) | 296 (17.7%) | |
| Gasping (1–5/min) | 56 (3.3%) | |
| No breathing | 13 (0.8%) | |
| Type of airway management | 23 (1.3%) | |
| Endotracheal intubation | 1733 (98.9%) | |
| Laryngeal mask | 13 (0.7%) | |
| Supraglottic device other than LMA | 1 (0.1%) | |
| Coniotomy | 6 (0.3%) | |
| Prehospital systolic blood pressure < 90 mmHg | 187 (10.9%) | 67 (3.8%) |
| Prehospital SpO2 < 90% or documented cyanosis | 332 (19.6%) | 79 (4.5%) |
| Distance from incident scene to hospital (km) | 24.6 [14.2, 40.4] | 289 (16.3%) |
| Time from HEMS dispatch to patient arrival at the hospital (minutes) | 56 [46, 69] | 94 (5.3%) |
| In-hospital data | ||
|---|---|---|
| First arterial pCO2 (mmHg) | 45 [40, 51] | 203 (11.4%) |
| Systolic blood pressure < 90 mmHg at hospital arrival | 144 (8.9%) | 166 (9.4%) |
| SpO2 < 90% at hospital arrival | 67 (4.5%) | 294 (16.6%) |
| First cerebral CT scan, Rotterdam classification | 351 (19.8%) | |
| Basal cisterns | ||
| Normal | 911 (63.9%) | |
| Compressed | 270 (19%) | |
| Absent | 244 (17.1%) | |
| Midline shift | ||
| No shift or ≤ 5 mm | 1106 (77.6%) | |
| > 5 mm | 319 (22.4%) | |
| Epidural mass lesion | ||
| Present | 200 (14%) | |
| Absent | 1225 (86%) | |
| Intraventricular blood or traumatic SAH | ||
| Present | 885 (62.2%) | |
| Absent | 539 (37.9%) | |
| Emergency neurosurgical intervention (first 48 h) | 521 (36.4%) | 343 (19.3%) |
| Emergency extracranial surgery (first 48 h) | 241 (16.8%) | 345 (19.4%) |
| Hospital LOS (days)* | 16 [6, 33]* | 10 (1%)* |
| Follow-up and outcome | ||
|---|---|---|
| Follow-up time (days) | 365 [5; 365] (range 1–365) | 109 (6.1%)‡ |
| Death at 30 days | 554 (33.2%) | 109 (6.1%)$ |
| Death at 1 year | 610 (40.2%) | 258 (14.5%) |
| GOS at discharge [N(%)] | ||
| Death | 564 (35%) | 166 (9.3%) |
| Vegetative state | 38 (2.4%) | |
| Severe disability | 583 (36.2%) | |
| Moderate disability | 170 (10.6%) | |
| Good recovery | 255 (15.8%) | |
Demographic, treatment, and outcome data of included patients. Numbers presented as median [quartiles] or n (percentage). For the calculation of percentages, the number of non-missing cases was used as the denominator. * Of surviving patients past hospital discharge (see GOS at discharge for the number of patients known to have survived past discharge). The total number of missing data for LOS was 134/1776 = 7.5%. ‡These patients could not be followed up, and thus, the follow-up time was coded as 0 in the database. Here, these patients are considered to have a missing follow-up time, and the follow-up time is reported only for those patients who were actually followed up. $The 109 patients with missing data for 30-day mortality are the same as those with also missing follow-up and thus are also missing all mortality data including survival time