Interventions of Polish Emergency Medical Teams in patients with malignant tumors — a four-year follow-up (2019–2022)
, 2, 3
Abstract
Introduction. In Poland, interventions of emergency medical teams in patients with malignant tumors represent a small percentage of all interventions. Patients with malignant tumors constitute a diverse group in which the patient may manifest a wide spectrum of symptoms and complaints affecting different systems and organs. The aim of this study was to retrospectively analyze emergency medical team interventions in patients with malignant tumors.
Material and methods. 1174 emergency medical services forms from emergency medical team interventions in patients with malignant tumors from April 2019 to December 2022 in the Kujawsko-Pomorskie voivodship in Poland were analyzed.
Results. In the study group 52% were male. The mean age of the subjects was 66 years (SD = 12.31). The most common symptoms in patients were pathological respiratory murmurs (11.7%), psychomotor disorders (11.3%), hypoxemia (10.3%), dyspnea (9.5%) and pain (5.8%). 40.5% of patients were transported to hospital. A total of 7496 emergency medical procedures were performed, most of them involving physical examination and assessment of the patient’s condition. The pharmacotherapy administered most commonly involved analgesics (30.9%), electrolytes (24%) and glucocorticosteroids (20.1%). Seventy-four patients (6.3%) died during EMT intervention.
Conclusions. Emergency medical teams most often provide assistance to patients with malignant tumors of the respiratory and thoracic organs and organs of the digestive system. The majority of oncology patients do not require hospital treatment, but only outpatient care. Therefore, there is a need to regulate and optimize the actions taken by emergency medical teams when intervening in patients with malignant tumors.
Keywords: emergency medical teammalignant tumoremergencies
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