People's Liberation Army Clinical Center for Spinal Cord Injury, Kunming General Hospital of People's Liberation Army, Kunming, PR China.
PLoS One. 2012;7(7):e39544. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0039544. Epub 2012 Jul 9.
Effective immobilization and transportation are vital to the life-saving acute medical care needed when treating critically injured people. However, the most common types of stretchers used today are wrought with problems that can lead to further medical complications, difficulty in employment and rescue, and ineffective transitions to hospital treatment. Here we report a novel first aid stretcher called the "emergency carpet", which solves these problems with a unique design for spine injured patients. Polyurethane composite material, obtained by a novel process of manually mixing isocyanate and additives, can be poured into a specially designed fabric bag and allowed to harden to form a rigid human-shaped stretcher. The effectiveness of the emergency carpet was examined in the pre-hospital management of victims with spinal fractures. Additionally, it was tested on flat ground and complex terrain as well as in the sea and air. We demonstrated that the emergency carpet can be assembled and solidified on the scene in 5 minutes, providing effective immobilization to the entire injured body. With the protection of the emergency carpet, none of the 20 patients, who were finally confirmed to have spinal column fracture or dislocation, had any neurological deterioration during transportation. Furthermore, the carpet can be handled and transported by multiple means under differing conditions, without compromising immobilization. Finally, the emergency carpet allows the critically injured patient to receive multiple examinations such as X-ray, CT, and MRI without being removed from the carpet. Our results demonstrate that the emergency carpet has ideal capabilities for immobilization, extrication, and transportation of the spine injured patients. Compared with other stretchers, it allows for better mobility, effective immobilization, remarkable conformity to the body, and various means for transportation. The emergency carpet is promising for its intrinsic advantages in the pre-hospital management of accident victims.
有效的固定和转运对于救治严重创伤患者的急救至关重要。然而，目前最常见的担架存在许多问题，可能导致进一步的医疗并发症、救援困难以及向医院治疗的无效过渡。在这里，我们报告了一种新型的急救担架，称为“紧急地毯”，它通过为脊柱受伤患者设计独特的设计解决了这些问题。通过一种将异氰酸酯和添加剂手动混合的新工艺获得的聚氨酯复合材料，可以将其倒入特殊设计的布袋中，并使其硬化形成刚性人形担架。在对脊柱骨折患者的院前管理中检查了紧急地毯的有效性。此外，还在平地和复杂地形以及海上和空中对其进行了测试。我们证明，紧急地毯可以在 5 分钟内在现场组装和固化，为整个受伤身体提供有效的固定。在紧急地毯的保护下，最终确认有脊柱骨折或脱位的 20 名患者在转运过程中没有任何神经恶化。此外，地毯可以在不同条件下通过多种方式进行处理和运输，而不会影响固定。最后，地毯可以在不将患者从地毯上移开的情况下允许重症患者接受 X 光、CT 和 MRI 等多项检查。我们的结果表明，紧急地毯具有理想的脊柱受伤患者固定、救援和转运能力。与其他担架相比，它具有更好的机动性、有效的固定、显著的贴合身体以及多种运输方式。紧急地毯在事故受害者的院前管理中具有内在优势，具有广阔的应用前景。
