SPECIAL ARTICLES   

Gazzetta Medica Italiana Archivio per le Scienze Mediche 2004 December;163(6):309-15

Copyright © 2004 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: Italian

Sanitary organization of the 76th Meeting of Alpine Troops in Aosta

Millo P. ¹, Vettorato C. ², Visetti E. ³, Lopresti G. ⁴, Mandia C. ⁵

¹ Responsabile Sanitario Regionale, Comitato Regionale Croce Rossa Italiana Aosta, Responsabile Corpo Militare CRI VdA, Dirigente Medico U.O., Chirurgia Generale-Aosta; ² Responsabile 118 Valle d’Aosta; ³ Responsabile Servizio di Anestesia e Rianimazione, Ospedale Regionale di Aosta; ⁴ Responsabile Servizio Sanitario, Centro Addestramento Alpino, Aosta; ⁵ Capo servizio sanitario, Polizia di Stato, Questura di Aosta

From 9 to 11 May 2003 about 300 000 former servicemen from the Alpine regiment from all over Italy, but also from Venezuela, Canada, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, Uruguay and South Africa gathered in Aosta, painting the whole Valley with the colours of the Italian flag. In that same period 1 148 interventions were necessary, 37% for cardiocirculatory pathology, 35% traumatic, 6% ethylic, 4% intoxications and respiratory pathologies, 3% neurologic pathology (excluding measurement of arterial pressure, administration of analgesics). Distribution by gender was: 87% male and 13% female. The average intervention time, from admission to the medical filter unit to release, was 19 min for most interventions (extremes between 5 minutes and 4.5 hours). Patients were released from the various units in 78.7% of cases, in 9.8% they were sent on to the regional clinic, 4.4% were admitted to the ANA Hospital, while only 7% were directed to the First Aid Centre of the Regional Hospital and 0.25% to the Turin Trauma Hospital. There were no deaths. The effectiveness of the filter system with units spread over the territory was demonstrated by the extremely low number of admissions to the ANA hospital and to the Regional Hospital and it proved the trump card in the challenge presented by the Alpinist Rally.
The costs of similar operations are very hard to quantify owing to the variety of factors involved and are notably high. For this reason it is necessary to apply to volunteer organisation capable of guaranteeing highly professional structures and personnel at low cost.