Park Kyoung Duck, Seo Sook Jin, Oh Chang Hyun, Kim Se Hyuk, Cho Jin Mo
Department of Neurosurgery, Ajou University College of Medicine, Suwon, Korea.
Department of Neurosurgery, Teun Teun Research Institute, Seoul, Korea.
J Korean Neurosurg Soc. 2014 Jul;56(1):42-7. doi: 10.3340/jkns.2014.56.1.42. Epub 2014 Jul 31.
Helicopter ambulance transport (HAT) is a highly resource-intensive facility that is a well-established part of the trauma transport system in many developed countries. Here, we review the benefit of HAT for neurosurgical patients in Korea.
This retrospective study followed neurotrauma patients who were transferred by HAT to a single emergency trauma center over a period of 2 years. The clinical benefits of HAT were measured according to the necessity of emergency surgical intervention and the differences in the time taken to transport patients by ground ambulance transport (GAT) and HAT.
Ninety-nine patients were transferred to a single university hospital using HAT, of whom 32 were taken to the neurosurgery department. Of these 32 patients, 10 (31.3%) needed neurosurgical intervention, 14 (43.8%) needed non-neurosurgical intervention, 3 (9.4%) required both, and 11 (34.4%) did not require any intervention. The transfer time was faster using HAT than the estimated time needed for GAT, although for a relatively close distance (<50 km) without ground obstacles (mountain or sea) HAT did not improve transfer time. The cost comparison showed that HAT was more expensive than GAT (3,292,000 vs. 84,000 KRW, p<0.001).
In this Korean-based study, we found that HAT has a clinical benefit for neurotrauma cases involving a transfer from a distant site or an isolated area. A more precise triage for using HAT should be considered to prevent overuse of this expensive transport method.
直升机救护转运（HAT）是一种资源高度密集的设施，在许多发达国家是创伤转运系统中成熟的一部分。在此，我们回顾HAT对韩国神经外科患者的益处。
这项回顾性研究追踪了在两年时间里通过HAT转运至单一急诊创伤中心的神经创伤患者。根据紧急手术干预的必要性以及地面救护车转运（GAT）和HAT转运患者所需时间的差异来衡量HAT的临床益处。
99名患者通过HAT转运至一家大学医院，其中32名被送往神经外科。在这32名患者中，10名（31.3%）需要神经外科干预，14名（43.8%）需要非神经外科干预，3名（9.4%）两者都需要，11名（34.4%）不需要任何干预。使用HAT的转运时间比GAT所需的估计时间更快，尽管对于距离相对较近（<50公里）且没有地面障碍（山脉或海洋）的情况，HAT并未改善转运时间。成本比较显示，HAT比GAT更昂贵（3,292,000韩元对84,000韩元，p<0.001）。
在这项基于韩国的研究中，我们发现HAT对涉及从远处或偏远地区转运的神经创伤病例具有临床益处。应考虑对使用HAT进行更精确的分诊，以防止过度使用这种昂贵的转运方法。
