Resuscitation
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To describe the current evidence on the frequency and nature of cognitive impairments in survivors of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. ⋯ There are few good studies on the frequency of cognitive impairments after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. However, cognitive problems, in particular memory problems, seem common in survivors of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Emergency room management of trauma patients in Greece: preliminary report of a national study.
The aim of this study was to record and to evaluate the epidemiology of trauma in Greece and to assess the quality of management provided for trauma patients in the emergency department in Greek hospitals. ⋯ Data from this study show that there is substantial room for improvement in the patient care in the emergency department following trauma. Further evaluation will be required to identify particular management patterns that can be readily altered.
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Comparative Study
Validation of a universal prehospital termination of resuscitation clinical prediction rule for advanced and basic life support providers.
Prehospital termination of resuscitation rules have been derived for Emergency Medical Technician-Paramedics providing advanced life support care and defibrillation-only Emergency Medical Technicians providing basic life support care. We sought to externally validate each rule on a prospective cohort of prehospital cardiac arrest patients to determine if either rule could be proposed as a universal prehospital termination of resuscitation rule. ⋯ Implementing the basic life support rule as a universal termination of resuscitation clinical prediction rule would result in a lower overall transport rate without missing any potential survivors. The universal rule would recommend termination of resuscitation when there was no return of spontaneous circulation prior to transport, no shock was given and the arrest was not witnessed by Emergency Medical Services personnel. This rule may be useful for emergency medical services systems with mixed levels of providers responding to cardiac arrest patients.
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Comparative Study
Predicting outcome after severe traumatic brain injury using the serum S100B biomarker: results using a single (24h) time-point.
In recent years, biochemical markers have been employed to predict the outcome of patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). In mild TBI, S100B has shown the most promise as a marker of outcome. The objective of this study in patients with severe TBI was to: show the range of serum S100B levels during the acute phase after trauma: determine if S100B has potential to discriminate favourable from unfavourable outcome in patients with similar brain injury severity scores and to establish an S100B 'cut-off' predictive for death. ⋯ In 100 patients studied with similar brain injury severity scores, serum S100B measured at the 24-h time-point after injury is significantly associated with outcome but a cut-off 0.53microgL(-1) does not have good prognostic performance.