Department of Anesthesiology, University Hospital Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany.
Faculty of Medicine, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany.
PLoS One. 2020 Feb 24;15(2):e0217530. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0217530. eCollection 2020.
The effects of environmental changes on the somato-sensory system during long-distance air ambulance flights need to be further investigated. Changes in nociceptive capacity are conceivable in light of previous studies performed under related environmental settings. We used standardized somato-sensory testing to investigate nociception in healthy volunteers during air-ambulance flights.
Twenty-five healthy individuals were submitted to a test compilation analogous to the quantitative sensory testing battery-performed during actual air-ambulance flights. Measurements were paired around the major changes of external factors during take-off/climb and descent/landing. Bland-Altman-Plots were calculated to identify possible systemic effects.
Bland-Altman-analyses suggest that the thresholds of stimulus detection and pain as well as above-threshold pain along critical waypoints of travel are not subject to systemic effects but instead demonstrate random variations.
We provide a novel description of a real-life experimental setup and demonstrate the general feasibility of performing somato-sensory testing during ambulance flights. No systematic effects on the nociception of healthy individuals were apparent from our data. Our findings open up the possibility of future investigations into potential effects of ambulance flights on patients suffering acute or chronic pain.
需要进一步研究环境变化对长途空中救护车飞行过程中体感觉系统的影响。根据先前在相关环境设置下进行的研究，疼痛感受能力的变化是可以想象的。我们使用标准化的体感觉测试来调查健康志愿者在空气救护车飞行过程中的疼痛感知。
25 名健康个体接受了类似于实际空中救护车飞行期间进行的定量感觉测试组合的测试。测量值在起飞/爬升和下降/降落期间的主要外部因素变化周围配对。计算 Bland-Altman 图以确定可能的系统效应。
Bland-Altman 分析表明，刺激检测和疼痛的阈值以及临界旅行点的阈上疼痛不受系统效应的影响，而是表现出随机变化。
我们提供了一个现实实验设置的新描述，并证明了在救护车飞行过程中进行体感觉测试的一般可行性。我们的数据没有显示出健康个体的疼痛感知存在系统影响。我们的发现为未来研究救护车飞行对急性或慢性疼痛患者的潜在影响开辟了可能性。
