Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Emerg Med Australas · Feb 2008
Emergency medicine in Sri Lanka: the inevitable evolution to a new specialty.
Sri Lanka is a low-income country with a relatively advanced, equitable and accessible health-care system offered to its 20 million populations free of charge through a national pro-poor health policy. Its weaknesses in emergency services, however, surfaced in 2004 when it faced the Tsunami, the worst natural disaster of the world of the 21st century. Since then, the local health community with the assistance of the government and foreign aid agencies have embarked on a path to establish emergency services, improve its preparedness for disaster management and establishment of emergency medicine training. The present article traces this path and how it is evolving in the country.
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Emerg Med Australas · Feb 2008
Comparative StudyHow fast is the focused assessment with sonography for trauma examination learning curve?
Although accuracy for focused assessment with sonography for trauma (FAST) examination interpretation has been widely reported, the learning curve for FAST interpretation by emergency medicine (EM) residents who are novice to ultrasound has not been well described. The present study's objective was to analyse EM resident FAST interpretation accuracy over 18 months. ⋯ Over 18 months, EM resident FAST interpretation accuracy steadily increased. By 12 months (or 35 examinations), the accuracy of EM residents novice to ultrasound approximated previously reported accuracy rates.
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Emerg Med Australas · Feb 2008
Case ReportsEndovascular treatment of an acute left middle cerebral artery >6 h post stroke in a patient presenting with dysphasia and dense right hemiplegia.
This paper describes the case of a 32-year-old man presenting with dense right hemiplegia and global aphasia caused by an acute left middle cerebral artery infarct that underwent successful endovascular therapy after being determined ineligible for intravenous tissue plasminogen activator. Clot transversion and balloon disruption followed by intra-arterial Alteplase resulted in successful re-canalization of his middle cerebral artery at 7 h 30 min. At 3 months post stroke, the patient had moderately severe expressive dysphasia but was mobilizing independently with normal right upper and lower limb strength. In conclusion, the 3 month outcome suggests that the therapeutic time window for endovascular therapy might exceed 6 h post stroke.
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Emerg Med Australas · Feb 2008
Australasian emergency physicians: a learning and educational needs analysis. Part two: confidence of FACEM for tasks and skills.
To determine the degree of confidence perceived by Fellows of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine for a variety of procedural, patient management, educational and research skills, and tasks that may be required of them. ⋯ This information may assist in the planning of future educational interventions for EP.