Tranexamic acid needs to be implemented in mass casualty incident protocols

Abstract

Mass casualty incidents (MCI) are a challenge for emergency medical services (EMS). There are multiple factors, both internal and external, that intervene on how they are solved. These factors cover aspects such as the use of specific protocols, coordination among different organizations, or the risks inherent to the incident itself [1]. All of this means that, although our main objective is patient care, there is little clinical research carried out in this regard for different reasons, among which we can remark on the difficulty of obtaining clinical data in a chaotic situation that, by definition, exceeds the response capacity [2]. There are few epidemiological studies that attempt to analyze the characteristics and prevalence of MCI [3, 4], and some of them for specific types [5], but there are some common elements that directly affect the clinical care of patients: a high number of patients that exceed the response capacity of the system, difficulties for clinical management in an unstable situation and long prehospital times due to access, and coordination difficulties together with lack of necessary resources[6].