title: The Effectiveness Evaluation of Helicopter Ambulance Transport among Neurotrauma Patients in Korea.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Helicopter ambulance transport (HAT) is a highly resource-intensive facility that is a well-established part of the trauma transport system in many developed countries. Here, we review the benefit of HAT for neurosurgical patients in Korea.
  
  
  METHODS
  This retrospective study followed neurotrauma patients who were transferred by HAT to a single emergency trauma center over a period of 2 years. The clinical benefits of HAT were measured according to the necessity of emergency surgical intervention and the differences in the time taken to transport patients by ground ambulance transport (GAT) and HAT.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Ninety-nine patients were transferred to a single university hospital using HAT, of whom 32 were taken to the neurosurgery department. Of these 32 patients, 10 (31.3%) needed neurosurgical intervention, 14 (43.8%) needed non-neurosurgical intervention, 3 (9.4%) required both, and 11 (34.4%) did not require any intervention. The transfer time was faster using HAT than the estimated time needed for GAT, although for a relatively close distance (<50 km) without ground obstacles (mountain or sea) HAT did not improve transfer time. The cost comparison showed that HAT was more expensive than GAT (3,292,000 vs. 84,000 KRW, p<0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this Korean-based study, we found that HAT has a clinical benefit for neurotrauma cases involving a transfer from a distant site or an isolated area. A more precise triage for using HAT should be considered to prevent overuse of this expensive transport method.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Ajou University College of Medicine, Suwon, Korea.
authors.forename: Kyoung Duck
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Ajou University College of Medicine, Suwon, Korea.
authors.forename: Sook Jin
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Seo
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Teun Teun Research Institute, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Chang Hyun
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Ajou University College of Medicine, Suwon, Korea.
authors.forename: Se Hyuk
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Ajou University College of Medicine, Suwon, Korea.
authors.forename: Jin Mo
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Cho
keywords: Aeromedical evacuation; Clinical benefit; Helicopter ambulance transport; Korea; Neurotrauma