[Results of a national survey about the use of sedation scales in emergency prehospital medicine].

The primary goal of sedation in emergency prehospital care is to guarantee the security of the mechanically ventilated patients by optimising their adaptation to the respirator. If the French prehospital guidelines are well codified, their applicability in routine clinical practice seem to be rather empirical. The aim of this national survey was to evaluate the use of the clinical sedation scales by the prehospital physicians. This prospective and clinical practice survey was begun in January 2005. An anonymous questionnaire was sent to the physicians working in the 377 Mobile Intensive Care Unit of the 105 French Emergency Medical Service System. The total response rate from physicians was 28% (n=497). Only 29% of the physicians (n=145) declared to use a sedation scale for a mechanically ventilated patient. The Ramsay score was used in 97% of the cases (n=141).The principal reasons given by the physicians for not using the sedation scales were their ignorance in 57% of the cases (n=200) and the systematic choice of a deep sedation in 42% of the cases (n=147). For 18% of them (n=62), the use of sedation scores was considered too complicated. The final results show that the utilisation ratio of the sedation scores is very low in emergency prehospital medicine and suggest that an effort toward improving the use of sedation in prehospital emergency medicine is necessary.