Interhospital Transportation of Mass Burn Casualties

To establish the impact of the transportation on the condition and outcome of the victims of the Volendam fire incident.

Medical and logistic parameters from all victims in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) were retrospectively collected. Physiologic parameters in the first 24 h and outcome parameters were compared between the transported and the non-transported patients.

The first 24 h, 105 patients were admitted to an ICU: 47 of them were relocated during that same day. The pH value was significantly lower in the transported group (p = 0.016). Systolic blood pressure, bicarbonate, carbon dioxide, temperature, APACHE II score and fluctuation during the first day, as well as condition during the second day did not differ significantly. The origin of the acidosis seemed to be mainly metabolic. The number of hospitalization days was larger in the transported group with severe burn injury (≥25% total body surface area burnt), comparing to the non-transported group (p = 0.015). Ventilation days and mortality did not differ significantly.

The transported patients had a lower pH the first day after transportation, but condition during the second day as well as ventilation day and mortality did not differ between the transported and the non-transported group. Therefore, transportation during the unstable phase, the first day post-burn, seemed not to have had a negative impact on patient outcome.