Monthly Archives: July 2010

Tactical Combat Casualty Care

Posted on July 15, 2010 by

The brave men and women of the military not only risk their lives for us – they also provide a wealth of trauma experience and publish interesting stuff. This month’s Journal of Trauma contains a military trauma supplement. One of … Continue reading →

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Less RSI desaturation with Roc

Posted on July 10, 2010 by

Some of my pre-hospital critical care colleagues in the UK exclusively use rocuronium in preference to suxamethonium for rapid sequence induction (RSI) of anaesthesia in critically ill patients. I couldn’t see a good reason to switch although now there’s some … Continue reading →

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Pre-hospital RSI successes

Posted on July 5, 2010 by

A couple of papers in Prehospital Emergency Care this month contribute to the pre-hospital airway management / rapid sequence intubation (RSI) literature. Intensive physician oversight of a pre-hospital RSI program increased the prescription of post-intubation morphine and midazolam, and decreased … Continue reading →

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Pre-hospital chest escharotomy

Posted on July 4, 2010 by

Two cases are described in Pre-hospital Emergency Care of severely burned patients who were impossible to adequately ventilate after tracheal intubation until they underwent escharotomy by a pre-hospital physician. The review that follows reminds us of some intersting escharotomy facts: … Continue reading →

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Military pre-hospital thoracotomy

Posted on July 2, 2010 by

Military doctors in Afghanistan reviewed their experience of thoracotomy done within 24 hours of admission to their hospital. The ballistic nature of thoracic penetrating trauma (mainly Afghan civilians without body armour) differs from the typical knife-wound related injury seen in … Continue reading →

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