Prehospital and disaster medicine
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Prehosp Disaster Med · Jul 2002
Prehospital interventions: on-scene-time and ambulance-technicians' experience.
Very little evidence is available on the experience of ambulance-personnels or on the impact of prehospital interventions on total prehospital time. ⋯ The Danish ambulance-technicians' curriculum includes interventions for which the technicians only achieve limited practical experience. Prehospital interventions are associated with an increase of on-scene time.
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Prehosp Disaster Med · Jul 2002
First-aid training and bystander actions at traffic crashes--a population study.
Traffic crashes constitute a major, worldwide public-health problem that cause disabilities, life-long suffering, and huge economic losses. When a person is injured in a traffic crash, actions taken by bystanders often are of crucial importance. To perform first-aid actions in a correct manner, bystanders, often laypersons, need both the courage and the knowledge to do so. For preventive purposes, society spends large resources to inform and educate the public in order to enhance people's ability to take correct actions. However, there only is little information on the rate in a population of persons who have had first-aid training, have been bystanders at a traffic crash, on the actions taken by such persons, and on effects of first-aid training on patient care. ⋯ Intensified first-aid training of the general public could lead to citizens who are more cautious in traffic and to bystanders who provide more immediate and adequate first aid at traffic crashes and other emergencies.
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Prehosp Disaster Med · Jul 2002
Ukranian's Disaster Medicine Team Mission to India following the earthquake of 2001.
This article describes the basic principles around establishing a Disaster Medicine Camp and the organization of the Ukrainian Disaster Medicine Mobile Hospital, which provided medical aid to victims of the 2001 earthquake in India. All of the information was obtained through direct observation and estimates based on empirical data gathered in the field.
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Prehosp Disaster Med · Apr 2002
Comparative StudyCan the "golden hour of shock" safely be extended in blunt polytrauma patients? Prospective cohort study at a level I hospital in eastern Switzerland.
The objective was to test, in this trauma system, the North American hypothesis that exceeding the 60-minute limit for the entire prehospital time ("golden hour of shock") increases mortality of blunt polytrauma patients. ⋯ It appears in this trauma system, in which emergency physicians often are deployed, that the 'golden hour of shock' can be extended safely in many blunt polytrauma patients, since this was associated with better survival figures than in those patients for whom the time was < 1 hour.
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Prehosp Disaster Med · Apr 2002
Comparative StudyRapid on-site defibrillation versus community program.
For patients who suffer out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, the time from collapse to initial defibrillation is the single most important factor that affects survival to hospital discharge. The purpose of this study was to compare the survival rates of cardiac arrest victims within an institution that has a rapid defibrillation program with those of its own urban community, tiered EMS system. ⋯ This study provides further evidence that PAD Programs may enhance cardiac arrest survival rates and should be considered for any venue with large numbers of adults as well as areas with difficult medical access.