• Chun-Ying Huang, Cheng-Shyuan Rau, Jung-Fang Chuang, Pao-Jen Kuo, Shiun-Yuan Hsu, Yi-Chun Chen, Hsiao-Yun Hsieh, and Ching-Hua Hsieh.
• Department of Trauma Surgery, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Kaohsiung 833, Taiwan. junyinhuang@yahoo.com.tw.
• Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2016 Feb 19; 13 (2): 236.

AbstractTo investigate the injury characteristics and mortality of patients transported by emergency medical services (EMS) and hospitalized for trauma following a road traffic crash, data obtained from the Trauma Registry System were retrospectively reviewed for trauma admissions between 1 January 2009 and 31 December 2013 in a Level I trauma center. Of 16,548 registered patients, 3978 and 1440 patients injured in road traffic crashes were transported to the emergency department by EMS and non-EMS, respectively. Patients transported by EMS had lower Glasgow coma scale (GCS) scores and worse hemodynamic measures. Compared to patients transported by non-EMS, more patients transported by EMS required procedures (intubation, chest tube insertion, and blood transfusion) at the emergency department. They also sustained a higher injury severity, as measured by the injury severity score (ISS) and the new injury severity score (NISS). Lastly, in-hospital mortality was higher among the EMS than the non-EMS group (1.8% vs. 0.3%, respectively; p < 0.001). However, we found no statistically significant difference in the adjusted odds ratio (AOR) for mortality among patients transported by EMS after adjustment for ISS (AOR 4.9, 95% CI 0.33-2.26), indicating that the higher incidence of mortality was likely attributed to the patients' higher injury severity. In addition, after propensity score matching, logistic regression of 58 well-matched pairs did not show a significant influence of transportation by EMS on mortality (OR: 0.578, 95% CI: 0.132-2.541 p = 0.468).

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