parisa hasani

Knowledge of epidemiological aspects can be a useful guide in determining the resources for better prevention and management of injuries. There are some performed studies on this topic in Iran, based on the limited hospital database. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is not any survey based on the pre-hospital database.

The purpose of this study was to assess baseline characteristics of the traumatic patients according to the records of Tehran Emergency Medical Service (EMS) Center to present descriptive statistics of their epidemiological features.

This cross-sectional study was conducted retrospectively, using Tehran EMS center data registry. All traumatic patients examined by EMS in Tehran, Iran following call to emergency medical dispatcher were included. By reviewing the EMS technicians’ mission forms, required data were extracted. The mission form contains information such as age, sex, injured location, damage mechanism, accident location (home, workplace, street), time of call, the outcome of the patient's ambulance mission and the results of the assessment of the technician, etc.

Totally, 56612 injured cases with the mean age of 33.1±15.6 years were examined by EMS during one-year study period of whom 80.4% were male. Crude Incidence Rate was 10.5 and 2.5 per 1000 in male and female, respectively. Traffic accident and then fall were the two most prevalent mechanism of injuries. All types of injuries were significantly more prevalent in males (P<0.001). Most injuries were in winter season with 15570 cases (27.5%). Car accident was prevalent in winter and other injuries were significantly prevalent in spring (P<0.001). The most frequent places of injuries occurred on main roads and streets (55.7%). All of the road-related injuries was prevalent in winter, whereas injuries in other places were prevalent in spring (P<0.001). Most of the cases (78.3%) were transferred to the health centers, but 20.7% did not consent to treatment and transmission. Only 222 cases (0.4%) died, that 95% was due to traffic accident. there was a significant relationship between the number of injured organs and the death; So that the highest death rate occurred for those with more than 5 injured organs (P <0.001).

Based on the findings, traffic accident was the most frequent cause of trauma that led to visiting a traumatic patient by an EMS technician in Tehran, Iran. Injuries in all age groups were more prevalent in males, and the involvement of 5 or more injured organ had a significant relationship with mortality.

The earthquake is one of the most natural catastrophic crises that can cause a lot of casualties. Considering an earthquake-prone country, Iran is ranked as one of the world's most dangerous countries In this article, we describe the actions taken by emergency medical service (EMS) after the earthquake in Kermanshah, Varzaghan, and Bam and compared the strengths and weaknesses of the emergency response program and the limitations and challenges of this system in dealing with these major crises. This study is a cross-sectional study that compares some of the information and findings related to three earthquakes that occurred in Iran, including Bam, Varzaghan and Sarpol-e-Zahab earthquakes. The data reported in the present article is descriptive and is based on various independent sources such as National Emergency Operation Center, Local Emergency Operations Center (EOC), the EMS of the country, the World Health Organization, the United Nations, the statistics website, the Forensic Data website, the International Institute of Seismology and Earthquake Engineering, conferences and personal interviews. To ensure the credibility of the information, the authors reported data that had been verified by two or more sources. The characteristics of the geographic area of the 3 earthquakes has been described. Post-earthquake response activities were described in details in subheadings including rapid warning and response, surge capacity plan, rapid response teams, emergency medical teams, increasing the capacity of health facilities, increasing transfer capacity, and handling, transportation and distribution of injuries. In the recent earthquake, had been occurred in Sarpol-e-Zahab, the health response of the country was largely satisfactory. The existence of structures such as EOC at various levels, the unified incident command system, emergency operations plan, and Medical Care Monitoring Center are among the most important reasons for satisfactory performance.