Setting and participants: We included patients brought to hospital in an ambulance dispatched after emergency calls during 2007-2014 in the North Denmark Region (580 000 inhabitants). We reported hospital diagnosis according to the chapters of the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Edition (ICD-10), and studied death on days 1 and 30 after the call. Cohort characteristics and diagnoses were described, and the Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate mortality and 95% CIs.
Background: Dyspnoea (breathing difficulty) is among the most commonly cited reasons for contacting emergency medical services (EMSs). Dyspnoea is caused by several serious underlying medical conditions and, based on patients individual needs and complex illnesses or injuries, ambulance staff are independently responsible for advanced care provision. Few large-scale prehospital studies have reviewed patients with dyspnoea. This study aimed to describe the characteristics and final outcomes of patients whose main symptom was classified as dyspnoea by the prehospital emergency nurse (PEN).
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