Helicopter Neonatal Transport: First Golden Hour at Birth Is Useful Tool Guiding Activation of Appropriate Resources

Objective: A lack of consensus exists about the appropriate criteria to activate a helicopter during neonatal transport. The aim of the present study was to explore the possible guiding criteria to justify helicopter activation for neonatal transport (NETS). Methods: This was a retrospective study of the Gaslini Genoa NETSs from February 1995 to December 2019. The flight and driving times and the reason for helicopter neonatal transport activation were obtained for every subject from the online NETS clinical database. Driving and flight data (mean and standard deviation [SD]) were compared using the Student t-test (P < .05). Results: Five thousand eight hundred sixty-six transported newborn infants were identified. A significant difference emerged between the overall ground (mean = 99.2 minutes [SD = 15.7 minutes]) and overall helicopter transport times (mean = 27.8 minutes [SD = 11.9 minutes], P < .0001). Considering the “golden hour,” the chance to stabilize the patient within this time frame could have been possible for 4 of 5 neonatal care centers when using a helicopter. Conclusion: On the basis of our observations, we suggest including the golden hour as 1 of the guiding criteria justifying helicopter activation, especially if applied to the reason of transport and the quality of assistance the newborn will receive while waiting for the NETS team.