• Georg Siebenbürger, Christian Zeckey, Julian Fürmetz, Wolfgang Böcker, and Tobias Helfen.
• Department of General-, Trauma- and Reconstructive Surgery, Munich University Hospital, Nußbaumstr. 20, 80336, Munich, Germany.
• Eur J Trauma Emerg Surg. 2018 Aug 1; 44 (4): 637-642.

PurposeJoint dislocations occur frequently in prehospital settings. The medical specialities of emergency physicians are heterogeneous. Decision making and the success rates of reduction attempt can vary greatly. The aim of this prospective multicentre study was to identify the factors most crucial for achieving successful prehospital reduction.MethodsStudy was conducted from 05/2012-05/2015 investigating cases of shoulder, patella and ankle joint dislocations in 16 emergency physician rescue stations. Parameters included: affected joint, type and use of medication, incidence and circumstances of reduction or reduction attempt and medical specialty as well as subjective skill status.ResultsIn total 118 patients could be included. Mean age was 40.1 ± 21.3 years. Medical specialties were: n = 61 (51.7%) anaesthesiologists (A), n = 41 (34.5%) surgeons (S), and n = 16 (13.5%) internal medicine/others (I/O). Reduction attempt was performed in n = 97 (82.2%). With taking into account the complexity of the reduction (S) had significantly the highest success rates followed by (A) and (I/O). Regarding the applied medication there was neither a significant correlation between pain (p = 0.161) nor success of reduction (p = 0.09). A higher number of attempts does not improve the success rate (p ≤ 0.001), the pain level was no predictor for success of reduction attempt (p = 0.88).ConclusionA successful reduction is determined by the trias of affected joint, skill level and medical specialty of the physician. In each case this trias should be considered by the physician in charge and he must evaluate limitations and circumstances.

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