Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Development of any new profession is dependent on the development of a special body of knowledge that is the domain of the profession. Key to this is research. Following sustained lobbying, the Queensland Government agreed to establish an emergency medicine research fund as part of an Enterprise Bargaining Agreement in 2006. ⋯ The Foundation has developed a range of personnel and project support funding programmes, and competition for funding has increased. Ongoing evaluation will seek to determine the effectiveness of the current funding strategy on improving the effectiveness of research performance. It will also evaluate the clinical and organizational outcomes.
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Emerg Med Australas · Feb 2012
Impact of polymerase chain reaction results on patient management during a viral meningitis outbreak in Tropical North Queensland.
Enterovirus is the most commonly isolated pathogen in viral meningitis. We report on the first outbreak of viral meningitis in Tropical Queensland and the effect of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) results on antibiotic use and hospital length of stay. ⋯ In our study a positive result on PCR was not associated with a shorter hospital length of stay or a shorter duration of antibiotic therapy. This contrasts with previous reports on this topic and requires further evaluation.
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Emerg Med Australas · Feb 2012
Hydrofluoric acid poisoning: data from the Victorian Poisons Information Centre.
To determine the epidemiology of hydrofluoric acid (HF) exposures, over an extended time period, in Victoria, Australia. ⋯ Calls to the VPIC regarding HF are relatively rare, but almost all calls regarding HF taken by the VPIC required hospital evaluation. The majority of exposures were accidental occupational dermal exposures in male adults and most of these were minor, requiring topical calcium gel only. Small exposures with higher concentrated HF can be fatal; however, there were no cases of severe toxicity in the present study.
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Emerg Med Australas · Feb 2012
Emergency surgical cricothyroidotomy: 24 successful cases leading to a simple 'scalpel-finger-tube' method.
Surgical airway access justifiably remains the final option for managing the 'can't intubate can't ventilate' situation, but available techniques are often complicated and might require special equipment. This paper reports on the real world experience of two experienced Australian medical specialists with backgrounds in Anaesthesia and Aeromedical Retrieval who performed 24 surgical airways, mainly under adverse prehospital conditions, over a combined 40 years of practice. All attempts were successful, the majority through a simple open 'scalpel-finger-tube' method, which is described here.