The American journal of emergency medicine
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The Lazarus phenomenon or autoresuscitation (autoROSC) is the return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) after the termination of the cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) efforts. ⋯ AutoROSC is probably an under-reported event in the medical community. Healthcare professionals should be aware of the phenomenon and actively monitor for it, when appropriate.
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Pulmonary embolism (PE) and pulmonary hypertension (PH) are potentially fatal disease states. Early diagnosis and goal-directed management improve outcomes and survival. Both conditions share several echocardiographic findings of right ventricular dysfunction. This can inadvertently lead to incorrect diagnosis, inappropriate and potentially harmful management, and delay in time-sensitive therapies. Fortunately, bedside echocardiography imparts a few critical distinctions. ⋯ Emergency physicians must appreciate the echocardiographic findings and associated pathophysiology that help distinguish acute and chronic right ventricular dysfunction. In the proper clinical context, these findings can point towards PE or PH, thereby leading to earlier goal-directed management.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Surgical mask-to-mouth ventilation as an alternative ventilation technique during CPR: A crossover randomized controlled trial.
Chest compression with rescue breathing improves outcomes in cardiac arrest. However, the efficacy of rescue breathing through surgical masks has not been investigated. ⋯ MMV resulted in a superior average tidal volume when compared to both MSV and SSV. However, SMV achieved a comparable average tidal volume to MMV.
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Multicenter Study
A simple scoring rule to predict survival to discharge after out of hospital cardiac arrest at the time of ED arrival.
It is important to be able to predict the chance of survival to hospital discharge upon ED arrival in order to determine whether to continue or terminate resuscitation efforts after out of hospital cardiac arrest. This study was conducted to develop and validate a simple scoring rule that could predict survival to hospital discharge at the time of ED arrival. ⋯ A simple scoring rule consisting of five, binary variables could aid in the prediction of the survival to hospital discharge at the time of ED arrival, showing comparable results to conventional machine learning classifiers.
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The incidence of HIV among adolescents remains high, and adolescents are known to participate in sexual behaviors that increase their risk for HIV, such as unprotected sex and sex with multiple partners. HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) has been shown to be effective at preventing HIV when taken daily and is approved by the FDA for use in adolescents. Efforts to screen patients in adult emergency departments and connect them with PrEP services have been validated. We surveyed pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) providers to determine their knowledge of PrEP, prescribing practices, willingness to prescribe, and barriers to a screening protocol in the pediatric emergency department (PED). ⋯ PEM providers are knowledgeable about PrEP but have little experience with discussing or prescribing PrEP. Their willingness to refer for PrEP and anticipated feasibility of a PrEP referral system is encouraging. These results support the need for future educational efforts among PEM providers and creation of referral systems for PrEP services from the PED.