Introduction:
The Revised Trauma Score (RTS) accurately identifies trauma patients at high risk of adverse events or death. Less is known about its usefulness in the general population and non-trauma recipients of Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS). The RTS is a simple tool and omits a lot of other data obtained during clinical evaluation. The aim was to assess the role of the RTS to identify patients at risk of major complications (death, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, defibrillation, intubation) in the general population of HEMS patients. Clinical factors beyond the RTS were analyzed to identify additional prognostic factors for predicting major complications.

Material and methods:
A retrospective analysis of medical records of adult patients routinely collected during HEMS missions in the years 2011–2014 was performed.

Results:
The analysis included 19 554 HEMS missions. Patients were 55 ±20 years old and 68% were male. The most common indication for HEMS was diseases of the circulatory system – 41%. Major complications occurred in 2072 (10.6%) cases. In the general population of HEMS patients, the RTS accurately identified individuals at risk of major complications at a cut-off value of 10.5 and area under the curve (AUC) of 93.5%. In multivariate analysis, additional clinical data derived from clinical examination (ECG; skin, pupil and breathing examination) significantly but marginally improved the accuracy of RTS assessment: AUC 95.6% (p < 0.001 for the difference).

Conclusions:
The Revised Trauma Score accurately identifies individuals at risk of major complications during HEMS missions regardless of the indication. Additional clinical data significantly but marginally improved the accuracy of RTS in the general population of HEMS patients.