Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Comparative Study
Emergency department right upper quadrant ultrasound is associated with a reduced time to diagnosis and treatment of ruptured ectopic pregnancies.
To determine whether the time to diagnosis and treatment of patients with ruptured ectopic pregnancy is significantly less for patients who had emergency department (ED) right upper quadrant (RUQ) ultrasound (US) compared with those who had US in the radiology department. ⋯ Patients with ruptured ectopic pregnancy, who were selected to have RUQ US performed in the ED by emergency physicians, had an average decrease in time to diagnosis of two and a quarter hours, and an average decrease in time to treatment of three and a half hours, compared with those having a formal pelvic US in the radiology department. Further prospective investigation is needed to determine whether ED RUQ US can safely expedite care of patients with suspected ectopic pregnancy.
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Comparative Study
Analysis of school injuries resulting in emergency department or hospital admission.
To describe the epidemiology of school injuries resulting in emergency department (ED) visits, hospital admission, or death. ⋯ This study emphasizes the significance of school injuries and the need for interventions to prevent these injuries
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Comparative Study
Rapid development of brain hypothermia using femoral-carotid bypass.
Advances in the field of cardiopulmonary resuscitation have led to an increasing number of patients initially surviving sudden cardiac arrest. Unfortunately, most of these patients do not recover from the resultant anoxic brain insult. Several animal and human trials have suggested that post-resuscitative brain hypothermia may improve neurologic recovery after cardiopulmonary arrest. Present cooling methods are slow, induce only brain surface cooling, or result in systemic hypothermia. The authors tested the hypothesis that unilateral hypothermic carotid bypass would induce bilateral brain cooling without evoking systemic hypothermia or hemodynamic instability. ⋯ Femoral-carotid hypothermic bypass rapidly induced a state of selective brain hypothermia without causing systemic hypothermia or hemodynamic instability.
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To assess the out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) survival advantage after providing police with automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in rural and suburban Indiana. ⋯ Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival in suburban and rural Indiana did not improve after police were equipped with AEDs, likely related to poor police response.