The youngest child provided with pain management by an EMS CHIR-99021 paramedic was four years old; by the HEMS two months old. No detrimental effects of the pre-clinical application of analgesics were recorded. Discussion There are no studies that show convincingly that a physician-based EMS leads to a decrease in overall mortality or morbidity of pre-clinically treated patients Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical [5]. However, in those patients requiring advanced airway management or other invasive procedures, as well as fluid management and pharmacotherapy, adding a specialist physician to the pre-hospital emergency care can increase survival and improve outcome [5]. The children in this study who were

examined and treated by the HEMS constitute a particularly compromised group. Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Nine percent of all children were given cardiopulmonary resuscitation in the field (with a 24-hour survival rate of 26%). Eich described 2271 paediatric emergencies in a comparable study on EMS and HEMS in Germany [6]. In this study, 72.7% of the children had a NACA score of I-III and 27.3% had a NACA score of IV-VII (versus 20.6% and 79.4% respectively in our study). (Pearson chi square p < 0.05). This discrepancy may be caused by profound differences between the Netherlands and Germany in Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical the pre-clinical emergency care for vitally compromised children, due to differences

in infrastructure, dispatching protocols, geography or training of EMS. Still, the conclusions stated in the study of Eich are even more valid to the HEMS in the Netherlands. The HEMS in our study encounters a high incidence of paediatric emergencies in children, therefore “…skills in paediatric airway management, cardiopulmonary resuscitation and intraosseous canulation in all age groups Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical are essential…” [6]. The youngest patients have the highest NACA scores. Certain causes of a preclinical vital threat occur only in early childhood, like Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical unexpected childbirth and duct-dependent congenital heart disease. Other causes of life-threatening

events, like sepsis, convulsions and near-drowning, others occur especially in toddlers and younger children [6]. These life-threatening events have a low rate of survival in this study. As advanced life support procedures are considered to be more difficult in younger children, special training in these cases should be provided for optimal performance of the HEMS. As shown in the age range variation in table ​table2,2, young children can be involved in any kind of trauma incident. Zautcke e.a. studied the amount of skill deterioration in 40 paramedics after graduation [7]. Examination consisted of the practical aspects of airway management, spinal immobilization and intravenous fluid therapy in relation to their final school examination. As a group, the study scores were significantly lower than the graduation scores except in spinal immobilization and extremity immobilization.