Advanced life support: care provided to motor vehicle crash victims

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the performance of Advanced Life Support care mode (ALS) applied to car crash victims using indicators by means of the Revised Trauma Score (RTS) in prehospital phase. METHODS: It were analyzed 643 reports of car crash victims cared by public ALS services that occurred in highways of the city of São Paulo, from April 1999 to April 2000. Time intervals assessed were: response time, on-scene time, transport time, and total time. Correct screening decision analysis considered RTS;£;11 for tertiary hospitals. Changes in RTS and its parameters were observed using the following equation: RTSfinal ;¾; RTSinitial. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Of 643 victims, 90.8% were RTS=12 and 5.2% were RTS;£;10. The response time ranged from 8 to 9 minutes, while on-scene and transport time were higher in RTS;£;10 cases. Of RTS;£;10 victims, 45.5% were correctly transported to tertiary hospitals. Screening decision misjudgments were identified. Maintenance or improvement of RTS values occurred in 98.8% of the cases. Respiratory rate was the parameter that showed better improvement followed by systolic blood pressure.