Early access to patients with life-threatening cardiovascular disease by an air ambulance service.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether use of an air ambulance service using a helicopter with a critical care physician and nurse on board (doctor helicopter service; DHS) could shorten the prehospital delay. We evaluated the initial treatment time and the transport time in 30 patients transported by DHS and 30 patients transported by ground ambulance service (GAS). The initial treatment time was significantly shorter in the DHS group (11.3+/-5.4 min) than in the GAS group (29.5+/-15.3 min). But the transport time in the DHS group (26.1+/-8.6 min) was not different from that in the GAS group. The difference in the initial treatment time was remarkable for patients transported from distant areas (12.7+/-5.6 min for DHS, and 42.1+/-13.8 min for GAS) and DHS shortened the initial treatment time by 30 min compared with GAS. The transport time was shorter for DHS (30.5+/-9.9 min) than for GAS (42.1+/-13.8 min) for patients transported from distant areas, but it was not significantly different for patients transported from nearby areas (22.3+/-5.0 min for DHS, and 18.4+/-2.4 min for GAS). In conclusion, DHS is important in the management of life-threatening cardiovascular diseases, and has a significant impact when GAS cannot transport a patient to the hospital within 20 min.