Sorimachi Kotaro, Muto Kazuya, Sugaya Kazuki, Ueno Satoshi, Onodera Makoto, Ohira Tetsuya, Tsubokura Masaharu, Iseki Ken
Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, Fukushima Medical University School of Medicine, Fukushima, Japan.
Department of Regional Emergency Medicine, Fukushima Medical University, Fukushima, Japan.
Disaster Med Public Health Prep. 2022 Jul 8;17:e161. doi: 10.1017/dmp.2022.128.
This study examined the characteristics of severe patients after the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011.
Cases in the Futaba area were extracted using the dispatch database of the doctor helicopter and flight-nurse records from March 11, 2008, till March 10, 2014. The period before March 11, 2011, was defined as 'pre-earthquake' and the period after March 11, 2011, as 'post-earthquake' to compare the recorded data.
Of the 128 total recorded cases, 78 were dispatched during the pre-earthquake period and 50 during the post-earthquake period. The number of patients with physical trauma following the earthquake included 4 patients (33.3%) in 2011, 7 patients (43.7%) in 2012, and 13 patients (59.1%) in 2013. However, the increase in number of requests was not statistically significant ( = 0.33). All 4 incidents of physical trauma in 2011, and 3 out of 7 incidents in 2012, occurred at the power plants. A total of 4 incidents occurred at decontamination worksites in 2013.
It is of primary importance for hospitals to anticipate physical trauma cases during the reconstruction phase following a disaster, and develop a system for patients with physical trauma in the short- and long-term.
