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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 May 2017
Introduction: While methods have been developed to assess pain and provide analgesia to hospitalized intubated patients, little is known about current EMS practices in providing similar care during air and land medical transports. Therefore, we sought to determine if opioid analgesia is provided to intubated patients during transportation in out-of-hospital setting. Methods: We conducted a health record review examining electronic records of intubated patients transported by Ornge in 2015. Ornge is the exclusive provider of air and land transport of critically ill patients in Ontario, Canada with over 18,000 transports per year. We identified cases using Ornge’s database and selected intubated patients meeting inclusion criteria. A standardized data extraction form was piloted and used by a single trained data extractor. The primary outcome was frequency of administration and dose adequacy of an opioid analgesic. Secondary outcomes included: choice of analgesics used (fentanyl, hydromorphone or morphine), adverse events, and impact of age, sex, or reason for transfer on pain management. We present descriptive statistics. Results: Our strategy identified 500 potential cases, of which 448 met our inclusion criteria. Among those 448 patients, 154 (34.4%) were females, 328 (73.4%) received analgesia and 211 (64.3%) received more than one dose during transport (median frequency of 2 doses, IQR=1 to 3). The average transport time was 148 minutes and repeated dosing (>1 repeat dose) occurred primarily (45.5%) in transports of over 180 minutes. Fentanyl was the most commonly used analgesic (97.6%) and most commonly used dose was 50 micrograms (51.8%). Adverse events occurred in 8 (2.5%) patients with 5 patients having new hypotension (MAP <65 mm Hg). There was no significant difference in administration of analgesia based on patient’s age or sex (68.8% of females and 75.3% of male patients received analgesia). Interestingly, 30.8% of patients repatriated to originating-hospital received analgesia compared to 72.3% of patients receiving analgesia for all other reasons for transfers. Conclusion: More than 73% of intubated patients transported by Ornge received an opioid analgesic, most commonly fentanyl. We found no clinically relevant difference in the administration of analgesics based on age, sex or reason for transfer other than home repatriation.