Pre-hospital care interventions for head injuries (Essay Sample)

PRE-HOSPITAL CARE INTERVENTIONS FOR HEAD INJURIES
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Introduction
Prehospital emergency care is the care given to patients with severe head injury to reduce possible secondary brain insults. It is aimed at reducing hypoxemia and hypotension as well as monitoring neurologic status including clinical assessment of intracranial pressure (ICP). The interval between brain injury and the arrival of the patient at the medical facility is an important time for brain. Basic and advanced life support has been employed to improve survival of the patient with head injury. Several researches have been done to explain the existence of these therapies.
Among the studies dealt with in this paper are:
‘Priorities for pediatric prehospital research’
‘Influence of prehospital treatment on the outcome of patients with severe blunt traumatic brain injury’
‘Lack of emergency medical services documentation is associated with poor patient outcomes’
‘Priorities for pediatric prehospital research’ by Foltin G et al.
Basic prehospital trauma care is provided at the community level by those trained in principles of trauma care known as basic life support. Advance life support is normally done at the care centers. It is however expensive and generally employed on the critically injured victims. Studies show that about five million people die due to injuries that arise from road accidence, self-inflicted injuries and interpersonal violence injuries.
This article entails skills, supplies and equipment that will enable lay people and health care providers to assess, stabilize and transport injured victims to the facilities that provide definitive care. It describes an effective and sustainable approach to the prehospital trauma care which will increase the likelihood that severely injured patients survive and reach the nearest hospital or other health-care setting.
The work also details the essential and desired components of an effective prehospital trauma care system. The document can, therefore, be used of minimum elements of an effective system of prehospital care for the injured patients. As a future registered nurse, I hope this information is of great importance as far as the establishment of prehospital care is concerned.
This information was gathered through several case studies in Ghana, Thailand and the USA by the World Health Organization (WHO). The document in itself greatly helped me understood the role of health work force like volunteer workers at the emergency stations and community health workers who are trained on the short-term basis. The research has motivated me in boldly approaching my future career as a neurosurgeon.
‘Influence of prehospital treatment on the outcome of patients with severe blunt traumatic brain injury’ by Berlot G et al
This article was aimed at determining whether prehospital advance life support improves the survival of major trauma patients and whether it is associated with the longer on-scene times.
Study of patients who received either prehospital bag-valve-mask (BVM) or endotrachial intubation (ETI) revealed that 5.3% had either BVM or ETI, 81% received BVM, with a mean injury severity score of 29% and mortality rate of 67%; 93 patients (19%) underwent successful ETI with a mean Injury Severity Score of 35% and a mortality rate of 93% (Berlot et al. 2009 p. 312). Survival for the patients who had BVM was 5.3 times more than those with ETI. Application of the logistic regression model compared to mean on-scene times for the BVM and ETI was very useful and resourceful in gathering the information in this document.
It was thus concluded that ALS procedures can be performed by paramedics on trauma patients without prolonging on-scene time, but do not improve survival (Berlot et al. 2009, p. 317). It was found that although success rate of ETI without paralytic agents was only 50 to 60%, ETI decreases mortality. The work has motivated me in boldly approaching my future career as a neurosurgeon.
‘Lack of emergency medical services documentation is associated with poor patient outcomes’ by Laudermilch DJ et al.
This article majored on the management tools in the field as avoidance of hypoxemia and hypotension; giving hypertonic saline; administering of neuroprotecti...