The American journal of emergency medicine
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Introducing a new, simple and inexpensive portable equipment for lifeguards, consisting of a pre-assembled full-size plastic blanket with a mask and HEPA filter, which could offer significant time-saving advantages to reduce COVID-19 risk transmission in the first few minutes of CPR after water rescue, avoiding the negative impact of delayed ventilation. ⋯ Resuscitation techniques in COVID-19 era at the beach have added complexities for the correct use of PPE. Plastic blanket plus basic ventilations equipment resource could be a new alternative to be considered for lifeguards to keep ventilation on use while reducing risk transmission.
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Brief early administration of supplemental oxygen (sO2) to create hyperoxia may increase oxygenation to penumbral tissue and improve stroke outcomes. Hyperoxia may also result in respiratory compromise and vasoconstriction leading to worse outcomes. This study examines the effects of prehospital sO2 in stroke. ⋯ Hyperoxic subjects had no significant increase in respiratory complications, nor did they differ in neurologic outcomes at discharge when controlling for confounders. While limited by the retrospective nature, this suggests brief, early sO2 for stroke may be safe to evaluate prospectively.