Tag Archives: pre-hospital

Scoop minimises cervical movement

A cadaveric study using a 3-dimensional electromagnetic tracking device to asses cervical motion compared the application of a scoop stretcher with two other manual transfer techniques, including log rolling onto an extrication (spine) board. The scoop method restricted cervical spine … Continue reading

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Pre-hospital cooling post arrest

An Australian randomised controlled trial assessed the effect of pre-hospital cooling (using 2 litres ice cold Hartmann’s) of post-cardiac arrest patients on functional status at hospital discharge. The intervention group were marginally cooler on arrival but did not have improved … Continue reading

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No benefit from pre-hospital trauma doctor in Holland

Being human, I suffer from confirmation bias: I’ve become aware that I’m always on the look out for studies that show benefit from physician-provided pre-hospital care and therefore it’s possible I miss the ones that show no benefit. Of course, … Continue reading

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Scene time not linked to outcome in large cohort

Okay – I admit to loving this paper, partly because it blows away the dogma of short scene times and ‘scoop & run’, and the oft-quoted but obnoxious assertion that the only pre-hospital fluid of benefit is gasoline. A massive … Continue reading

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Unexpected survivors after pre-hospital intubation

Data on patients with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury from the San Diego Trauma Registry were analysed using modified TRISS methodology to determine predicted survival, from which an observed-predicted survival differential (OPSD) was calculated. The mean OPSD was calculated … Continue reading

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Tracheal tube cuff pressure in flight

Tracheal tube cuff pressures increased from a mean 28.7 cm H2O pre-flight to 62.6 cm H2O in flight (mean altitude increase 2260 feet) in a Swiss helicopter-based study. At cruising altitude, 98% of patients had intracuff pressure >30 cm H2O, 72% had … Continue reading

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Pre-hospital RSI successes

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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Surviving avalanche burial

Avalanche burial has a high mortality and yet in some cases there have been some amazing saves despite prolonged cardiac arrest. An international working group undertook a systematic review to examine 4 critical prognostic factors for burial victims in cardiac … Continue reading

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Pre-hospital RSI

Physicians from HEMS London document their experience of 400 pre-hospital rapid sequence induction / intubations. Their data are consistent with the experience of other similar services and with the emergency airway management literature in general: Failure to intubate is rare … Continue reading

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Poor pre-hospital intubation success

A Scottish study of 628 pre-hospital intubation attempts in cardiac arrest patients records the rate of successful intubations, oesophageal intubations, and endobronchial intubations. Prehospital tracheal intubation was associated with decreased rates of survival to admission. This study has the limitations … Continue reading

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