Prehospital and disaster medicine
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Prehosp Disaster Med · Dec 2020
Multicenter StudyRescue Intubation in the Emergency Department After Prehospital Ketamine Administration for Agitation.
Prehospital intramuscular (IM) ketamine is increasingly used for chemical restraint of agitated patients. However, few studies have assessed emergency department (ED) follow-up of patients receiving prehospital ketamine for this indication, with previous reports suggesting a high rate of post-administration intubation. This study examines the rate of and reasons for intubation and other airway interventions in agitated patients who received ketamine by Emergency Medical Services (EMS). ⋯ The observed rate of intubation in patients receiving prehospital ketamine for agitation was 16.3%. Study data did not reveal an age or dose-dependent rate of intubation. Further research should be conducted to compare the airway intervention rate of agitated patients receiving ketamine versus other sedatives in a controlled fashion.
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Prehosp Disaster Med · Dec 2020
EditorialCounter-Terrorism Medicine: Creating a Medical Initiative Mandated by Escalating Asymmetric Attacks.
Since 2001, a burgeoning interest by health care professionals in the growing asymmetrical terrorist threat and its impact on health care preparation and response has seen significantly increased academic output around this nebulous subject. Despite this, there has failed to be a consolidation of this sub-specialty. ⋯ There is a growing body of academic work on the health care implications of terrorism. The time is right to coalesce these into an initiative referred to as CTM and to consider this as a discrete part of DM.
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Prehosp Disaster Med · Dec 2020
The National Emergency Medical Service Role During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Sierra Leone.
This report describes the main adaptive and transformative changes adopted by the brand-new National Emergency Medical Service (NEMS) to face the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Sierra Leone, including ambulance re-distribution, improvements in communication flow, implementation of ad-hoc procedures and trainings, and budget re-allocation. In a time-span of four months, 1,170 COVID-19 cases have been handled by the NEMS through a parallel referral system, while efforts have been made to manage the routine emergencies of the country, causing a substantial intensification of daily activities.