[Long-haul intensive care transports by air]

The need for inter-hospital transports over long distances aboard air ambulances or airlines has increased in recent years, both in the civil as well as the military sector. More often severely ill intensive care patients with multiple organ failure and appropriate supportive care (e.g. mechanical ventilation, catecholamines, dialysis, cardiac assist devices) are transported by air. Despite the fact that long-haul intensive care transports by air ambulance and airlines via Patient Transport Compartment (PTC) are considered established modes of transport they always provide a number of challenges. Both modes of transport have distinct logistical and medical advantages and disadvantages. These-as well as the principal risks of an air-bound long-haul intensive care transport -have to be included in the risk assessment and selection of means of transport. Very often long-haul intensive care transports are a combination of air ambulance and scheduled airlines utilizing the PTC.