Eine einfache Checkliste als Hilfsmittel zur Vorsichtung mit dem mSTaRT-Algorithmus

Background

In a mass casualty incident triage algorithms seem to help to identify patients with an acute life-threatening injury. Algorithms which include the vital functions breathing, circulation and consciousness seem to be superior to others because of their simplicity.

Material and methods

A checklist was developed according to the mSTaRT algorithm (mSTaRT test). In an exercise 12 teams simulated 480 pretriage procedures situated in 4 different sections each staffed with 10 actors. Triage results were analyzed using means, standard deviation, confidence interval (CI), sensitivity/specificity, as well as positive and negative likelihood ratios (LR±).

Results

The rate of critical undertriage (false negative red) was 1.0?% (95 % CI 0.3–2.4?%). The sensitivity of the mSTaRT test for category red was 96.8?% (95?% CI 92.6–98.9?%), the specificity was 98.2?% (95?% CI 96.0?–99.3?%), LR +?52.3 (95?% CI 23.7–115.6) and LR ??0.03 (95?% CI 0.01–0.08).

Conclusion

The results of this simulation study indicate that the mSTaRT test can be successfully used for a rapid identification of patients with life-threatening injuries (red patients).