INTRODUCTION: Appropriate, evidence-based care of traumatically injured patients in the prehospital setting is essential to saving lives and yielding better outcomes. There exists mixed evidence on the outcome differences between ambulance and helicopter prehospital transport, and on the effects of transport time on outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to examine these in patients presenting to an urban Level-1 trauma center. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted with three years of patient information from a trauma registry maintained by a Level-1 trauma center in St. Louis, Missouri (USA). Propensity matching was used to compare helicopter versus ground ambulance outcomes, while regression analysis was used to investigate transport time. RESULTS: = 0.02; P = 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Decreased injury to hospital arrival time and increased use of helicopter transport in specific situations may improve patient outcomes; this indicates the need for prospective studies.
Roche et al. (Thu,) studied this question.