More attention is needed for pediatric emergencies in flight

Although in-flight emergencies are well-characterized events when they occur with an adult, data on in-flight emergencies in children is lacking. A new study published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine underlines the need for additional information.

Researchers used records of all medical flight events from January 1, 2015 to October 31, 2016 involving children and adolescents under 19 years of age. The children were treated with the help of a ground-based medical badistance center and involved 77 commercial airlines. Researchers examined the factors badociated with a child requiring more care when the flight reached the intended destination or the flight was diverted.

Investigators found 11,719 in-flight events involving a pediatric patient. The majority of medical events, 76.1%, occurred on long-haul events. Fourteen percent of medical events involved infants sitting on one knee. Crew members provided exclusive care in 88.6% of medical events in flight. It was found that nursing and volunteer flight attendants provided flight care 2.1% and 8.7% of the time, respectively. Medical events were resolved in flight in 82.9% of cases and 16.5% required additional care when the aircraft reached the destination. Only 0.5% resulted in the hijacking of the aircraft.

The most common events included nausea or vomiting (33.9%), fever or chills (22.2%) or acute allergic reactions (5.5%). Additional post flight care was correlated with events requiring oxygen use and requiring the badistance of a volunteer medical provider. Lacerations, blunt trauma, syncope, seizures, burns, conbad heart disease, dyspnea, and events involving knee-infants also correlated with additional care.

In describing the study, lead author Alexander T. Rotta, MD, Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, said the study in light not only the need to improve safety equipment in flight, but also need for parents to take the necessary precautions to avoid an event in flight, for example keeping a child's drugs in the carry-on baggage rather than leaving them in checked baggage.