Author(s)

Guodong Liu¹, Shan Ou², Jun Qiu³, Danfeng Yuan³, Zhihuan Yang³, Zongke Zhou⁴, Yuan Yao⁵, Suxing Wang¹, Xiuzhu Zhang³, Wuchao Wang³, Dawei Liu³, Zhengguo Wang³, Jihong Zhou³

¹Department 8, Research Institute of Surgery, Daping Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China.
²Department of Anesthesiology, Chengdu First People’s Hospital, Chengdu, China.
³State Key Laboratory of Trauma, Burns and Combined Injury, Research Institute for Traffic Medicine, Research Institute of Surgery, Daping Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China.
⁴Department of Orthopedics, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
⁵Department of Emergency Center for Traffic Injury, No. 117th Hospital of PLA, Hangzhou, China.

Background: Trans-province transfer of the patients has been successfully carried out and has greatly relieved the burden of the hospitals in Sichuan Province after Sichuan earthquake. The aim of the study was to retrospectively analyze the efficacy and feasibility of the trans-province transfer of the multiple trauma patients after Sichuan earthquake. Methods: A retrospective and descriptive analysis was conducted based on the medical records of the multiple trauma patients (ISS ≥ 16) transferred to the Grade 3A hospitals outside Sichuan province. The patients were divided into two groups based on the distance to Sichuan province, i.e., Group A (the seismic patients transferred to Chongqing) and Group B (the seismic patients transferred to the other provinces/ municipalities). A comparison was done in aspects of distance of transfer, time from injury to transfer, vital signs, the infection rates (at transfer and on discharge), injury severity and prognostic indices (cure rate, disability rate and mortality). Results: The distance between Chengdu and the other places was at a wide range of 313 - 1653 km, whereas the time from injury to transfer showed no statistical difference between groups (P > 0.05). There were no significant differences between both groups with respects to patient demographics, injury mechanism, time from injury to transfer, vital signs, infection rate and injury severity. The prognostic indices showed no significant difference, except for FIM scores (P < 0.05). Conclusions: The results of the study indicate that the different distance of the transfer of the multiple trauma patients does not aggravate the severity or deteriorate the prognosis, which proves that the medical supportive transfer system is acceptable, effective and worthy of further implementation in China, which may be ascribed to the advanced transportation system and high level of therapeutic capacity of the hospitals. In the meantime, attention should be paid to psychological intervention and functional rehabilitation during the treatment of the transferred seismic patients.

Earthquake, Hospital Transfer, Vital Signs, Injury Severity Score, Prognosis

Liu, G.D., Ou, S., Qiu, J., Yuan, D.F., Yang, Z.H., Zhou, Z.K., Yao, Y., Wang, S.X., Zhang, X.Z., Wang, W.C., Liu, D.W., Wang, Z.G. and Zhou, J.H. (2016) Comparative Study on the Trans-Province Transfer of the Multiple Trauma Patients after Sichuan Earthquake. Open Journal of Earthquake Research, 5, 7-19. doi: 10.4236/ojer.2016.51002.