Annals of emergency medicine
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Emergency medical services (EMS) provides out-of-hospital care to patients with life-threatening conditions, but the long-term outcomes of EMS patients are unknown. We seek to determine the long-term mortality of EMS patients in Denmark. ⋯ EMS patients with unconsciousness or cardiac arrest, dyspnea, and neurologic symptoms are at highest risk of long-term mortality. Our results suggest a potential for outcome improvement in these patients.
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Observational Study
Accuracy of Postresuscitation Team Debriefings in a Pediatric Emergency Department.
Guideline committees recommend postresuscitation debriefings to improve performance. "Hot" postresuscitation debriefings occur immediately after the event and rely on team recall. We assessed the ability of resuscitation teams to recall their performance in team-based, hot debriefings in a pediatric emergency department (ED), using video review as the criterion standard. We hypothesized that debriefing accuracy will improve during the course of the study. ⋯ Teams in postresuscitation debriefings had a higher degree of debriefing answer accuracy in the final 50 debriefings than in the first 50. Teams also distinguished various degrees of resuscitation performance.
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The Universal Termination of Resuscitation Rule (TOR Rule) was developed to identify out-of-hospital cardiac arrests eligible for field termination of resuscitation, avoiding futile transportation to the hospital. The validity of the rule in emergency medical services (EMS) systems that do not routinely transport out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients to the hospital is unknown. We seek to validate the TOR Rule in British Columbia. ⋯ In this cohort of adult out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients, the TOR Rule applied at 6 minutes falsely recommended care termination for 2.1% of patients; however, this decreased with later application. Systems using the TOR Rule to cease resuscitation in the field should consider rule application at points later than 6 minutes.
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Observational Study
Lung-Protective Ventilation Initiated in the Emergency Department (LOV-ED): A Quasi-Experimental, Before-After Trial.
We evaluated the efficacy of an emergency department (ED)-based lung-protective mechanical ventilation protocol for the prevention of pulmonary complications. ⋯ Implementing a mechanical ventilator protocol in the ED is feasible and is associated with significant improvements in the delivery of safe mechanical ventilation and clinical outcome.