The American journal of emergency medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Basic life support training: Demonstration versus lecture - A randomised controlled trial.
Basic life support (BLS) and the use of an automated external defibrillator (AED) improve survival from cardiac arrest. The gold standard for teaching BLS/AED is yet to be identified. The aim of this study was to compare the learning outcome of an instructor-led demonstration with a formal lecture for introducing BLS/AED skills. We hypothesized that a demonstration was superior to a lecture. ⋯ There was no statistically significant difference in pass rate when comparing a demonstration with a lecture for introducing BLS/AED. The lecture group was slightly faster at initiating BLS. Most participants preferred a demonstration as introduction.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Short versus long axis ultrasound guided approach for internal jugular vein cannulations: A prospective randomized controlled trial.
Ultrasound-guided internal jugular vein cannulation is a standard procedure performed in ICUs worldwide. According to the guidelines, the short-axis approach is recommended over the long-axis approach for IJV cannulation. Double-operator cannulation is more convenient for the said procedure. However, the guidelines favor single-operator cannulation due to limited trials. We hypothesized that double-operator long-axis cannulation will be faster and have fewer complications than double-operator short-axis cannulation. ⋯ The long-axis view for IJV cannulation has similar insertion and procedure timings to the short-axis view. However, the complication rate and number of needle punctures required were less with the long-axis view than with those with the short-axis view.
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Smartphones and connected devices allow patients to monitor their health in a variety of ways. We report the case of a patient presenting to the emergency department complaining of palpitations and syncope. ⋯ This case highlights the importance of proactively requesting such information from patients, though normal recordings may not preclude cardiac arrhythmia. Controlled clinical studies are needed to validate such practices.