Air medical journal
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The 1994 Avionics and Airframe Survey was sent to 178 chief or lead pilots of helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) programs in October 1993, and 100 (56%) were returned. Sixty-four programs (64%) reported that they operate one helicopter exclusively for EMS, 24 (24%) operate two, and 12 (12%) reported using three or more aircraft. Interestingly, the reported percentage of programs with two or more exclusive helicopters continues to rise, increasing by 5.6% to 36%.
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In critically ill patients (e.g., trauma victims) prevention of hypothermia is an important goal. Infusion of warm fluids has been addressed in the hospital setting, but not in the air medical transport setting. ⋯ The IV fluid warmer tested effectively maintains the temperature of warmed IV fluids in temperatures above 2 degrees C. At -16 degrees C there was significant heat loss, but the loss was significantly less when compared to the control group.