Drowning Incidents Treated by the Danish SAR Helicopters (DROWN_SAR)

December 1, 2024 updated by: Niklas Breindahl, Prehospital Center, Region Zealand

Incidence and Characteristics of Drowning Patients at Sea Treated by the Royal Danish Air Force's Search And Rescue Helicopters From 2014-2023: a Nationwide Registry-based Study

Improving oxygenation and ventilation in drowning patients early in the field is critical and may be lifesaving. This may be achieved by helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) such as the Danish Air Ambulance, or the Royal Danish Air Force's Search And Rescue (SAR) helicopters. The SAR operates in all weather conditions and is equipped with a hoist system, able to hoist patients from the sea or small ships without helipads. This study aimed to estimate the incidence of drowning missions attended by the Royal Danish Air Force's SAR helicopter and describe patient characteristics and prehospital interventions.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The national Danish Drowning Cohort contains data on all fatal and non-fatal drowning patients treated by the Emergency Medical Services. However, data on drowning patients treated by the SAR helicopters is reported in a separate system.

The population of drowning patients treated by the SAR helicopters has never been described, thus contributing to the potential underreporting of the most critically ill drowning patients in Denmark. Given the rarity of drowning, registry-based studies are needed to provide patient characteristics and evaluate critical care interventions performed on this group of patients.

This study aims to identify and describe a national cohort of drowning patients at sea treated by the Royal Danish Air Force's SAR helicopters from 2014 to 2023.

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Actual)

247

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Denmark
    • Region Zealand
      • Næstved, Region Zealand, Denmark, 4700
        • Prehospital Center

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Drowning patients will be identified through manual validation of the Royal Danish Air Force's SAR helicopter's records using the internationally accepted definitions of fatal and non-fatal drowning incidents.

Drowning was defined by the WHO in 2002 as "the process of experiencing respiratory impairment from submersion or immersion in liquid".

If the incident involved submersion or immersion, but the patient did not experience respiratory impairment, the incident was categorised as a water rescue.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Patients treated by the Danish SAR helicopters AND
  • Drowning as defined by the WHO (the process of experiencing respiratory impairment from submersion or immersion in liquid)

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patients who have not been immersed or submersed.
  • Duplets.
  • Interhospital transfers.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Intervention / Treatment
Fatal drowning
Prehospital mortality following a drowning incident, defined as a dichotomous variable (dead or alive) evaluated at case termination. Patients admitted to the hospital with cardiac arrest were considered fatal drowning incidents in this study.
Other: Drowning incident
Patients categorized as drowning have been experiencing respiratory impairment from submersion or immersion in liquid and needing rescue by the Royal Danish Air Force's Search and Rescue (SAR) helicopters.
Non-fatal drowning
Drowning incidents where the patient had spontaneous circulation at hospital admission.
Other: Drowning incident
Patients categorized as drowning have been experiencing respiratory impairment from submersion or immersion in liquid and needing rescue by the Royal Danish Air Force's Search and Rescue (SAR) helicopters.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Annual incidence of drowning treated by the Danish SAR helicopters from 2014-2023
Time Frame: 1 year
The incidence will be reported as the annual number of cases.
1 year
Annual incidence rate of drowning treated by the Danish SAR helicopters from 2014-2023
Time Frame: 1 year
The incidence rate as the annual number of cases per 100,000 person-years.
1 year

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Spatial distribution of drowning patients treated by the Danish SAR helicopters from 2014-2023
Time Frame: The map will display all drowning incidents treated by the Danish SAR helicopters from 2014-2023.
The spatial distribution of drowning incidents will be displayed on a map of Denmark, with each case presented with a single entry based on the geographical coordinates of the incident.
The map will display all drowning incidents treated by the Danish SAR helicopters from 2014-2023.

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Prehospital Center, Region Zealand

Collaborators

Danish Defence

Investigators

  • Study Director: Helle Collatz Christensen, Ass. Prof., Prehospital Center, Region Zealand

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

January 1, 2014

Primary Completion (Actual)

January 31, 2024

Study Completion (Actual)

October 31, 2024

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 7, 2024

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 13, 2024

First Posted (Actual)

March 20, 2024

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimated)

December 4, 2024

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 1, 2024

Last Verified

December 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • DROWN_SAR

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

IPD Plan Description

The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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