Annals of emergency medicine
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Comparative Study
High discharge survival rate after out-of-hospital ventricular fibrillation with rapid defibrillation by police and paramedics.
To assess outcome in patients with ventricular fibrillation (VF) treated by defibrillator-equipped police and emergency medical technician-paramedics in an advanced life support (ALS) emergency medical services (EMS) system. ⋯ A high discharge-to-home survival rate was obtained with early defibrillation by both police and paramedics. When shocks resulted in ROSC, the overwhelming majority of patients survived (96%). Even brief time decreases (eg. 1 minute) in call-to-shock time increase the likelihood of ROSC from shocks only, with a consequent decrease in the need for ALS intervention. Short call-to-shock time and ROSC response to shocks only are major determinants of a high rate of survival after VF.
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To assess agreement among health professionals with regard to the need for urgent care among emergency department patients. ⋯ Even when using the same criteria, health professionals frequently disagree about the urgency of care in ED patients. When retrospective reviewers disagree with a prospective assessment of urgency, the potential exists for denial of payment or even lawsuits. Because the subjectivity of urgency definitions may increase disagreement, the development of more objective and uniform definitions may help improve agreement.
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We describe a case of idiopathic long-QT syndrome in a 4-year-old Hispanic girl. She had been seen previously at an outside hospital for possible new-onset seizure disorder but was brought to our emergency department after sustaining an unwitnessed fall. Her ECG was significant for changes consistent with long-QT syndrome. Emergency physicians should understand the necessity of electrocardiography in all pediatric patients who present with multiple spontaneous falls, episodes of dizziness, new-onset seizure activity and syncopal episodes.