Annals of emergency medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Comparison of 2 cricothyrotomy techniques: standard method versus rapid 4-step technique.
To compare the success rate, complication rate and time required for the rapid 4-step technique versus the standard technique for cricothyrotomy. ⋯ In a group of inexperienced subjects working on a preserved human cadaver model, the rapid 4-step technique for cricothyrotomy was performed in about one third the time required for performance of the standard technique. This finding was both clinically and statistically significant. Although the 2 techniques had similar success and complication rates, we noted a trend toward more severe complications in the rapid 4-step technique.
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Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
Selective cervical spine radiography in blunt trauma: methodology of the National Emergency X-Radiography Utilization Study (NEXUS).
Fear of failure to identify cervical spine injury has led to extremely liberal use of radiography in patients with blunt trauma and remotely possible neck injury. A number of previous retrospective and small prospective studies have tried to address the question of whether any clinical criteria can identify patients, from among this group, at sufficiently low risk that cervical spine radiography is unnecessary. The National Emergency X-Radiography Utilization Study (NEXUS) is a very large, federally supported, multicenter, prospective study designed to define the sensitivity, for detecting significant cervical spine injury, of criteria previously shown to have high negative predictive value. Done at 23 different emergency departments across the United States and projected to enroll more than 20 times as many patients with cervical spine injury than any previous study, NEXUS should be able to answer definitively questions about the validity and reliability of clinical criteria used as a preliminary screen for cervical spine injury.
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To determine the effectiveness, safety, and resource allocation of a 2-specialty, 2-tiered triage and trauma team activation protocol. ⋯ This evaluation tool effectively predicts likelihood of serious injury, mortality, need for emergency surgery, and need for rehabilitation. Patients with a low likelihood of serious injury may be initially evaluated by the emergency medicine service effectively and safely, thus allowing more efficient use of surgical personnel.
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To determine the clinical characteristics of endotracheal intubation in the French emergency prehospital medical system and compare these data with those of other systems. ⋯ The characteristics of French prehospital airway management differ significantly from those of other countries. These differences may be explained by differences in approach to prehospital management rather than differences of skill.
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We present 2 cases in which the transfusion of small volumes of packed RBC was sufficient to precipitate symptomatic hypocalcemia. Subsequent inquiry revealed that both of the patients had preexisting, untreated, and asymptomatic hypocalcemia, 1 following partial thyroidectomy many years earlier and the other with documented hypocalcemia but without a definitive diagnosis.