Introduction
Little is known about the epidemiology of emergency medical search and rescue incidents
globally. The purpose of this study was to describe the epidemiology of emergency
medical search and rescue incidents in the North Shore Mountains of Vancouver, British
Columbia, Canada.
Methods
This was a retrospective review and descriptive analysis of search and rescue incident
reports created by North Shore Rescue over a 25 y period from 1995 to 2019, inclusive.
Incident reports were screened for inclusion against a priori criteria defining a
medical callout. The National Advisory Committee of Aeronautics (NACA) severity score
was used as a method to grade medical acuity of included subjects.
Results
We included 906 subjects. Their median age was 35 y (interquartile range, 24–53),
and 65% of subjects were men. Forty-one percent (n=371) of subjects were classified
as non-trauma and 54% (n=489) as trauma. The top 3 activities were hiking (53%), biking
(10%), and snow sports (10%). Forty-nine percent of incidents were classified as having
a NACA score of ≥3. For subjects with trauma, the top 3 body regions were lower limb
(52%), head (18%), and torso (12%). For subjects with non-traumatic conditions, the
top 3 causes were mental health crises (25%), exposure (25%), and cardiovascular incidents
(11%).
Conclusions
Half of the incidents were serious enough to require medical assessment at a hospital
(NACA score ≥3). Given this medical acuity, there is a need for evidence-based guidelines
and core training competencies for mountain medical search and rescue. Standardized
core data sets and outcomes are needed to monitor quality of care over time.
Keywords
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to Wilderness & Environmental MedicineAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- New Zealand land search and rescue operations: an analysis of medical and traumatic conditions.Wilderness Environ Med. 2014; 25: 401-408
- A review of emergency medical services events in US national parks from 2007 to 2011.Wilderness Environ Med. 2013; 24: 195-202
- Search and rescue trends and the emergency medical service workload in Utah’s national parks.Wilderness Environ Med. 2008; 19: 164-171
- Saving tourists: the status of emergency medical services in California’s national parks.Travel Med Infect Dis. 2009; 7: 19-24
- Epidemiology of mountain search and rescue operations in Banff, Yoho, and Kootenay National Parks, 2003–06.Wilderness Environ Med. 2008; 19: 245-251
- Epidemiological trends in search and rescue incidents documented by the Alpine Club of Canada from 1970 to 2005.Wilderness Environ Med. 2015; 26: 536-543
- Epidemiology of search and rescue in Baxter State Park: dangers of decent and fatigue.Wilderness Environ Med. 2015; 26: 549-554
- Injury patterns at Isle Royale National Park: an epidemiologic review of injuries and illnesses sustained in a remote environment.Wilderness Environ Med. 2015; 26: 83-88
- The NACA scale. Construct and predictive validity of the NACA scale for prehospital severity rating in trauma patients.Anaesthesist. 2001; 50: 150-154
- Do pre-hospital anaesthesiologists reliably predict mortality using the NACA severity score? A retrospective cohort study.Acta Anaesthesiol Scand. 2013; 57: 1253-1259
Fletcher RS, Fisher DK, R Core Team. The R project for statistical computing. Available at: https://www.R-project.org. Accessed January 2020.
Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 28, 2023
Accepted:
November 3,
2022
Received:
July 14,
2022
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 Wilderness Medical Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
