Portable DR gets rockers back into the mosh pit

Aug 5, 2009

The use of a portable digital radiography (DR) system at a major U.K. music festival helped emergency personnel triage patients and send back to the event many music fans who otherwise might have been referred to a local hospital.

In a paper published in the August issue of Emergency Medicine Journal (2009, Vol. 26:8, p. 613), a research team led by Dr. Alison Walker, medical director of Yorkshire Ambulance Service, described its experience using a portable DR unit at the V Festival, a music festival sponsored by U.K. media giant the Virgin Group.

The DR unit was initially set up in a portacabin next to the festival's main medical base, with a taped-off exclusion zone. Later it was moved to a brick building onsite at the festival. Radiation dose delivered to patients was monitored and found to be within U.K. dose reference levels.

During the three-year study period, the DR unit was used to examine 110 patients; some patients received repeat films following medical interventions, resulting in a total of 117 studies. Ankle and foot injuries constituted the majority of radiographs, with 69 exams performed.

Significant abnormalities were found in 54 patients, and 58 patients were discharged back to the event. Emergency personnel arranged local follow-up for 40 patients, and 10 were transferred directly to a nearby hospital.

According to the researchers, attending clinicians reported that in 85 examinations, use of the DR system avoided a hospital transfer that otherwise would have occurred. Frontline ambulance staff members were able to deal with more acutely ill patients rather than transfer those with possible musculoskeletal injuries, they concluded.

"Musculoskeletal trauma is a common consequence of revelry at music festivals and was previously the most common reason for transfer to local hospitals in our experience," they wrote. "Mobile radiography is a useful adjunct for prehospital medical services at large events such as music festivals and reduces the pressure on local emergency departments."