ObjectiveTo understand the pre-hospital emergency medical staff's knowledge on crush injury and crush syndrome, and the influence of active and effective pre-hospital measures on the prognosis of patients with crush injury. MethodsWe retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 51 patients with crush injury treated from September 2004 to August 2014, and recorded the number of cases in which pre-hospital emergency medical staff recognized and/or took effective measures to control crush syndrome. Treatment group included those patients who accepted effective prevention and control measures, and the rest of the patients were included in the control group. We compared the two groups of patients in terms of the incidence of serious complications such as crush syndrome and amputation. ResultsTwenty-five cases (49.0%) of crush injury were recognized before the patients were admitted into the hospital, among whom 20 (39.2%) accepted effective preventive and control measures. The mangled extremity severity score between the two groups of patients had no significant difference (6.69±1.96 vs. 7.23±3.54, P>0.05). After being admitted into the hospital, the treatment group had one complication case of crush injury, while the control group had 10 complication cases including 7 of crush injury and 3 of amputation. The complication rate of the treatment group (5.0%) was significantly lower than that of the control group (32.3%, P<0.05). ConclusionActive and effective prehospital preventive and control measures are very important in the treatment of crush syndrome and reduction of morbidity, but the pre-hospital emergency personnel's knowledge of crush injury and crush syndrome is not enough.