This is a bibliographic record of a published health technology assessment from a member of INAHTA. No evaluation of the quality of this assessment has been made for the HTA database.

This study aims to compare the effects of two different fluid replacement protocols, one usually with fluid administration and one usually without, used by paramedics

This study does not support the idea that protocols recommending fluid administration do harm in blunt trauma patients. Previous studies have shown that, even though the initiation of intravenous fluids by paramedics seems to be associated with an increased risk of death, this may not be remediable by altering fluids protocols. It is possible that either giving fluids early does no harm, or that only one-quarter of patients are given fluids, and thus the specific protocol used makes little difference to this proportion. Ambulance services should therefore concentrate on avoiding unnecessary delays and speeding up transfer to definitive care in hospital rather than concentrate on their fluids protocols.