The epidemiology of amputation injuries in the Austrian helicopter emergency medical service: a retrospective, nationwide cohort study

Abstract

In the HEMS, amputation injuries are infrequent and mostly not life-threatening. However, HEMS crews need to maintain their focus on providing sufficient and fast primary care while facilitating rapid transport to a specialized hospital. The knowledge of the epidemiological characteristics of amputation injuries encountered in the HEMS gained in this study may be useful for educational and operational purposes.

Avaliação de lesões por serra circular em um centro de referência em microcirurgia e reimplantes

“…Frank et al 3 described amputations in 1 finger in 16 cases, comparable to the 13 cases of thumb amputation without involvement of the other fingers found in the present series. Selig et al 5 described reimplantation in 28% of amputation cases, a value well below the 65.7% found in the cases in the present study corresponding to 23 patients. The only mention of macroreimplants is made by Frank et al, 2 who described one case at the level of the hand, similar to our findings (one hand macroreimplant and two at the level of the wrist).…”

“…Circular saw injuries occur predominantly in males, possibly due to the association with woodwork activities, which are typically performed by men. Frank et al 2 3 described a sample of 114 patients, with only 8 females, while Selig et al 5 reported a male predominance with a ratio of 7:1, and Sabongi et al 6 reported a sample composed of 98.1% of male patients. Fikry et al 1 and Hassine et al 4 reported an exclusively male sample, similar to that observed in the present study.…”

“…The authors, however, decribe a majority of lesions in patients under 30 years of age. Selig et al 5 described a higher incidence in patients aged between 45 and 64 years and in those older than 65 years, but they group amputations by various mechanisms, although most of the lesions occurred by circular saw. In the work by Fikry et al, 1 the average age of the patients was 25 years (range: 12 to 60 years).…”

“…DiscussãoAs lesões por serra circular ocorrem predominantemente no sexo masculino, possivelmente devido a associação com atividades de marcenaria, tipicamente exercidas por homens. Frank et al2,3 descreveram uma amostra de 114 pacientes, sendo somente 8 do sexo feminino, ao passo que Selig et al5 relataram uma predominância masculina com razão de 7:1, e Sabongi et al6 relataram uma amostra que continha 98,1% de pacientes do sexo masculino. Fikry et al1 e Hassine et al4 relataram uma amostra exclusivamente masculina, semelhante ao que foi observado no presente estudo.…”

Avalanche Accident Resulting in Leg Amputation

“…To the Editor: Amputation injuries are rarely seen in helicopter emergency medical services missions, and complete amputations even less so. 1 Although it has been reported that the most frequently injured part of the lower limb for skiers is the knee, no case of amputation has yet been reported among 13,381 lower extremity skiing injuries. 2 We recently had to face a dramatic avalanche accident resulting in complete traumatic leg amputation, which is the first case that we are aware of described to date.…”