Does Prehospital Time Influence Clinical Outcomes in Severe Trauma Patients?: A Cross Sectional Study

Prehospital time potentially impacts clinical outcomes in severely injured trauma patients. The importance of individual components, including scene and response time, however, is controversial. Our objective was to determine the impact of prehospital times on survival in severely injured patients.

We reviewed injured trauma patients enrolled in a Korean EMS trauma registry during 2012. Severe trauma patients were defined as having either a "V" or lower in the AVPU system, a systolic blood pressure ≤90mmHg, or respiratory rate <10 or >29. Patients with Injury Severity Scores(ISS) < 9 were excluded. Patients were categorized by scene time into 4 groups as follows: <3 minutes, 3-6 minutes, 6-9 minutes, and ≥9 minutes and by prehospital time as follows: <16 minutes, 16-24 minutes, 24-32 minutes, and ≥32 minutes. The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to adjust for possible confounders.

A total of 2,257 eligible patients were analyzed. Scene time was <3 minutes in 220 (9.7%), 3-6 in 865 (38.3%), 6-9 in 587 (26.0%), and ≥9 in 585 (25.9%). In-hospital mortality was 396 (17.5%). Compared to a scene time 6 to 9 minutes, mortality was higher as the scene time decreased: odds ratio (OR) = 1.3(3 to <6), OR = 1.9(0 to <3). Mortality was slightly decreased as prehospital time increased, OR = 1.0(16 to <24), OR = 0.9(24 to <32), OR = 0.7(≥32).

Longer prehospital times did not increase mortality in severely injured trauma patients in Korea. Furthermore, longer scene times were associated with lower mortality.