Emergency Medical Support System for Extravehicular Activity Training Held at Weightless Environment Test Building (WETS) of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA): Future Prospects and A Look Back Over the Past Decade

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) provides extravehicular activity (EVA) training to astronauts in a weightless environment test building (WETS) located in Tsukuba City. For EVA training, Tsukuba Medial Center Hospital (TMCH) has established an emergency medical support system, serving as operations coordinator. Taking the perspective of emergency physicians, this paper provides an overview of the medical support system and examines its activities over the past decade as well as future issues. Fortunately, no major accident has occurred during the past 10 years of NBS. Minor complaints (external otitis, acute otitis media, transient dizziness, conjunctival inflammation, upper respiratory inflammation, dermatitis, abraded wounds, etc.) among the support divers have been addressed onsite by attending emergency physicians. Operations related to the medical support system at the WETS have proceeded smoothly for the former NASDA and continue to proceed without event for JAXA, providing safe, high-quality emergency medical services. If an accident occurs at the WETS, transporting the patient by helicopter following initial treatment by emergency physicians can actually exacerbate symptoms, since the procedure exposes a patient who was recently within a hyperbaric environment to the low-pressure environment involved in air transportation. If a helicopter is used, the flight altitude should be kept as low as possible by taking routes over the river.