[Management of critically ill nontrauma patients in a nonuniversity emergency department]

Today there exists only limited knowledge regarding the care of critically ill nontrauma (CINT) patients in the resuscitation room (RR) in Germany. The goal of this observational study was to describe the management of CINT patients in the RR of a nonuniversity emergency department.

Data of adult nontrauma patients in the RR were prospectively collected in this study from 26 January 2019 to 18 May 2021 using the OBSERvE‑2 evaluation protocol.

In all, 213 patients were included in the study (age: 70 ± 15 years, 55% male; admission to the RR by emergency medical service 93%). 28% were brought in after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Leading admission causes were C (47%) and B problems (39%). Diagnoses at the end of RR treatment were 30% pulmonary and 26% cardiovascular diseases without myocardial infarction as well as pulmonary embolism (8% and 5%, respectively). Measures performed were airway protection (20%), invasive (46%) and noninvasive ventilation (25%), cardiopulmonary resuscitation (13%), catecholamine therapy (34%), emergency ultrasound (62%). The initial treatment lasted for 41 ± 22 min. Computed tomography was subsequently performed in 51%. On average 4-5 persons were involved in the treatment during the RR period. In total, 9% of the patients died during RR treatment and 40% in the hospital.

Patients in a nonuniversity nontrauma RR are resource-intensive and have a high in-hospital lethality. RR care can be completed within 60 min. In order to achieve better comparability between patient populations of different locations, it is necessary to uniformly define admission criteria for the nontrauma resuscitation room.