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To determine whether helicopter transport confers a survival benefit over ground transport for trauma patients, researchers analyzed data from the 2007 National Trauma Data Bank for 56,744 adult trauma patients who were transported from the scene of injury to 62 U.S. trauma centers in 2007.
Most patients (82%) were transported by ground ambulance. Of 2556 patients who died in the hospital, 1874 (4% of the total) were transported by ground ambulance, and 682 (7%) were transported by helicopter. Mortality risk increased significantly with each year of age and each unit of Injury Severity Score (ISS). In analysis adjusted for age, sex, and ISS, odds of dying were 39% lower for patients transported by helicopter than for those transported by amb…