Prehospital and disaster medicine
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Prehosp Disaster Med · Jan 2009
Review Historical ArticleMustard gas or sulfur mustard: an old chemical agent as a new terrorist threat.
Sulfur mustard is a member of the vesicant class of chemical warfare agents that causes blistering to the skin and mucous membranes. There is no specific antidote, and treatment consists of systematically alleviating symptoms. ⋯ Longitudinal studies of exposed victims show that sulfur mustard causes long-term effects leading to high morbidity. Given that only a small amount of sulfur mustard is necessary to potentially cause an enormous number of casualties, disaster-planning protocol necessitates the education and training of first-line healthcare responders in the recognition, decontamination, triage, and treatment of sulfur mustard-exposed victims in a large-scale scenario.
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Prehosp Disaster Med · Jan 2009
Randomized Controlled TrialLaryngeal tube and intubating laryngeal mask insertion in a manikin by first-responder trainees after a short video-clip demonstration.
This study was performed in the Finnish Defense Forces to assess the potential applicability and value of short video clips as educational material to teach advanced airway management and as the first means of introducing the use of a laryngeal tube (LT) or an intubating laryngeal mask (ILMA) to inexperienced, military, first-responder trainees with no prior hands-on experience. ⋯ "Satisfactory" to "good" skill levels are achieved with the applied video-clip demonstration method, even in inexperienced first-responder trainees lacking previous hands on experience.