Air Medical Blood Transfusion as a Trigger of Massive Transfusion Protocol

Air medical services can improve access to blood products at the point of injury. Studies have shown that early activation of mass transfusion protocols (MTPs) can improve the survival of trauma patients by up to 25%. There are several scoring systems to guide early activation, but the use of a single criterion has been elusive. Our study sought to determine if air medical administration of blood products was a risk factor for massive transfusion activation and utilization of prehospital vital signs for calculation of the shock index. In our retrospective study, we evaluated adult trauma patients transfused by helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) and as a control all patients in our institution receiving the MTP. Our study found HEMS blood transfusion was not a reliable trigger for MTP, although the sample size may have limited our findings. We found that HEMS care resulted in an overall reduction in the volume of transfusion and an improvement in hemodynamic parameters upon trauma center arrival. HEMS transfusion and a higher rate of tranexamic acid administration may have contributed to these findings. Of note, the assessment of blood consumption score and shock index were nonspecific in the study populations.