Injury
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Observational Study
When can an enhanced critical care team add value to equestrian related incidents? A retrospective observational study.
Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) may be tasked to equestrian related incidents. Previous studies have suggested that majority of patients do not require HEMS specific interventions. No data has been published since 2015 so this article aims to establish the current incidence of equestrian incidents attended by one UK HEMS and identify trends that would aid the dispatch of HEMS to the patients who most need it. ⋯ Whilst HEMS dispatches to equestrian incidents remain a small percentage, there are four mechanisms that may benefit due to potential injury burden: fall onto head with suggestion of hyper-extension or hyper-flexion injury; kick to the torso; horse fallen or repetitively rolled onto patient and, no movement of patient since incident. In addition, age >50 years should be considered as higher risk.