title: Interhospital Transportation of Mass Burn Casualties.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To establish the impact of the transportation on the condition and outcome of the victims of the Volendam fire incident.
  
  
  METHODS
  Medical and logistic parameters from all victims in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) were retrospectively collected. Physiologic parameters in the first 24 h and outcome parameters were compared between the transported and the non-transported patients.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The first 24 h, 105 patients were admitted to an ICU: 47 of them were relocated during that same day. The pH value was significantly lower in the transported group (p = 0.016). Systolic blood pressure, bicarbonate, carbon dioxide, temperature, APACHE II score and fluctuation during the first day, as well as condition during the second day did not differ significantly. The origin of the acidosis seemed to be mainly metabolic. The number of hospitalization days was larger in the transported group with severe burn injury (≥25% total body surface area burnt), comparing to the non-transported group (p = 0.015). Ventilation days and mortality did not differ significantly.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The transported patients had a lower pH the first day after transportation, but condition during the second day as well as ventilation day and mortality did not differ between the transported and the non-transported group. Therefore, transportation during the unstable phase, the first day post-burn, seemed not to have had a negative impact on patient outcome.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Zaans Medical Center, Zaandam, The Netherlands. svanharten@hotmail.com.|Department of Surgery, Zaans Medical Center, Koningin Julianaplein 58, 1502 DV, Zaandam, The Netherlands. svanharten@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Sabine M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: van Harten
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Lieke
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Welling
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesiology, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Roberto S G M
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Perez
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Patka
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesiology, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Pieter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Henny
authors.affiliation: Burns Center, Red Cross Hospital, Beverwijk, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Robert W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Kreis
keywords: Burns; Disaster; Transportation