Journal of Emergency Practice and Trauma

Efficacy of rescue blanket versus conventional blanket in terms of preventing accidental hypothermia during patient transfer by emergency medical service: a randomized clinical trial

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Peyman Saberian 1, 2
Mostafa Sadeghi 3
Parisa Hasani-Sharamin 4
Maryam Modaber 4
Amirreza Farhoud 5
Mehrad Aghili 1, 6

1 Prehospital and Hospital Emergency Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

2 2 Department of Anesthesiology, Imam Khomeini Hospital Complex, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

3 Department of Anesthesiology, Shariati Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

4 Tehran Emergency Medical Service Center, Tehran, Iran

5 Reconstruction Research Center, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Imam Khomeini Hospital Complex, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

6 Department of Emergency Medicine, Shariati Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

https://doi.org/10.15171/jept.2019.27
Abstract
Objective: This study aimed to compare the efficacy of rescue blankets with conventional blankets in terms of preventing hypothermia in the pre-hospital setting. Methods: In this randomized clinical trial, patients older than 18 years old with Cold Discomfort Scale (CDS) > 2, and those who were transferred to the emergency department (ED) by emergency medical service entered the study. Patients were randomly divided into two groups based on the type of transfer. In this regard, one group was transferred with rescue blankets and the other group was transferred with conventional blankets. The tympanic temperature in patients and CDS were recorded before the use of blanket (primary) and at the time of arrival in the ED (secondary). Results: Finally, 161 patients with the mean age of 45.31±19.8 years were included (63.4% were male). Totally, 88 cases (54.7%) were transferred with rescue blankets and 73 cases (45.3%) with conventional blankets. The mean of the primary tympanic temperatures in the rescue and conventional blanket groups were 36.20±0.84°C and 36.34±0.65°C, respectively (P=0.23). The mean of the primary CDS in rescue and conventional blanket groups were 6.55±1.95 and 5.89±2.29, respectively (P=0.05). Also, the mean of the secondary tympanic temperatures in the rescue and conventional blanket groups were 36.59±0.47°C and 36.76±0.48 °C, respectively (P=0.03). Besides, the mean of the secondary CDS in the rescue and conventional blanket groups were 2.64±2.80 and 2.41±1.29, respectively (P=0.48). Conclusion: According to the results, there is no significant difference in the tympanic temperature and CDS of the patients transferred with the rescue blanket compared with the conventional blanket

Keywords

Blanket
Emergency medical service
Hypothermia
Prevention
Randomized clinical trial
Subjects
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Journal of Emergency Practice and Trauma
Volume 6, Issue 1
January 2020
Pages 38-42

  • Receive Date 06 October 2019
  • Revise Date 14 December 2019
  • Accept Date 17 December 2019

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