Background: Anesthesiologists and nurse anaesthesists have important roles in the management of in-hospital medical emergencies, and in trauma management. We investigated the extent of these services provided by the department of anaesthesiology at St. Olav University Hospital in Trondheim in the year 2002.
Material and methods: Missions involving emergency medical assistance were identified by a computer search in the department's database. We assessed medical aspects, place, time, and type of intervention.
Results: We identified a total of 646 missions, of which 501 occurred in the emergency department and 145 on the general wards. The majority (64%) occurred during on-call hours (4 pm-8 am). We found that as many as 4 to 7 missions occurred on any single day 40 times (i.e. days) during the year; which fits in with a Poisson statistical model. Trauma (50 %) and cardiac arrest (20%) dominated the material. Other medical emergencies included seizures, cerebrovascular events, intoxication, respiratory arrest, cardiac arrhythmias, internal bleeding, pulmonary oedema and loss of consciousness. Airway management was important, as 61 patients received bag-valve-mask ventilation and 164 were intubated and ventilated.
Interpretation: Staffing of anaesthesiology departments must take into account the possibility of sudden medical emergencies.