Inflight medical emergencies: a literature review

Abstract

Considering the growing number of passengers on commercial flights in Brazil and the world and the potential for in-flight medical emergencies, studies have become important regarding the reports of the repercussions of the airplane environment on persons with the common morbidities found in the population, who were attended during flights. The objective of this study was to observe the prevalence of reports that registered the main complications of the more common infirmities in the general population during commercial airline trips. The research was done by means of “in-flight medical emergency” keywords in a BVS data bank, that resulted in 62 papers; PubMed articles, 17; UpToDate articles, 5; Infraero results, 11 and 1 SBC result. Also searches were done of the data banks made available by ANAC, ICAO, ASMA. There was a focus on respiratory, cardiovascular and gastrointestinal disorders, without a consensus as to the percentages of the respective incidents in the literature: however, these disorders are on the list of those commonly reported, Other aspects of the attendance peculiar to this microenvironment were cited, such as the protocol for the procedures for communicating in-flight emergencies and registering how they were attended. A lack of more extensive and quantitatively robust studies was observed of the aspects covered in our study, which expressly applies to all the articles found. From our results, it was concluded that there is a need for these studies, as well as for an increase in making information, regarding the details of inflight medical attendance, available to airline companies and regulating commissions.