[HUB.JHU.EDU] For the study, Haut and colleagues examined data from the American College of Surgeons National Trauma Data Bank, the largest available collection of United States trauma registry data. The team examined information already gathered on 103,029 patients at least 16 years old who entered a U.S. trauma center between Jan. 1, 2010, and Dec. 31, 2012, for a gunshot or stab wound and were transported to the trauma center by ground ambulance or private vehicle. The data were gathered from 298 level I and level II trauma centers within the 100 most populous U.S. metro areas.I'm not sure how they adjusted for severity of injury. Those around the victims with non-life threatening wounds would seem more likely to load them into the car and drive them to the ER than those with serious injuries.
Approximately 16.4 percent of all patients were transported by private vehicle. The analysis found an overall 2.2 percent mortality rate for patients transported via private vehicle, compared to 11.6 percent for ground transport. Gunshot victims transported by private vehicle saw a lower mortality rate—4.5 percent versus 19.3 percent—as did stab victims—0.2 percent versus 2.9 percent). When adjusting for differences in injury severity, patients with penetrating injuries were 62 percent less likely to die when transported by private vehicle compared to EMS.
Looking at shock trauma data, you could come to the conclusion that airlifted victims are more likely to peg out. Is it because they were airlifted? Or is it because their injuries are more serious than the people from the same incident that got an ambo ride?
"Unlike CPR and defibrillation for heart attacks, the type of damage done in penetrating trauma often can't be reversed in a prehospital setting. This study supports other studies that prehospital interventions can actually result in less favorable outcomes for certain types of injuries," says Michael W. Wandling, an American College of Surgeons Clinical Scholar in Residence, general surgery resident at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and the study's first author.