The Anesthetic Techniques for Earthquake Victims in Indonesia

In Lombok, three-large magnitude earthquakes occurred in July 2018 and caused major losses: 564 victims died, 1684 were injured, 445,343 people became refugees, and 215,628 houses were damaged. It damaged 408 health facilities, consisting of 89 public health centers, 13 hospitals, 174 auxiliary public health centers, 132 village health posts.

The purpose of this study is to describe the anesthetic techniques that were used to treat earthquake victims.

This study was a descriptive cross-sectional study that was conducted by collecting total sampling from all earthquake victims treated in the emergency room (ER) of the regional public hospital (RSUD NTB) on August 6th and 7th, 2018, and all victims who underwent surgery during August 5th-25th, 2018. The data that were collected were surgery type, anesthetic techniques, and anesthesia drugs that were used.

The results show that the highest number of patients were treated in the ER during the first seven days after the earthquake and that this number then decreased over several weeks. The majority of patients treated were trauma patients who needed orthopedic surgery. General anesthesia was more widely used than regional anesthesia, but the difference was not significant. The most commonly used regional anesthetic was lidocaine hyperbaric 75-100 mg and clonidine 30-50 mcg combination. Regional anesthesia techniques have better results in cases of lower limb injury, but it is difficult to be applied in earthquake victims who present with complex injuries and limited resources.