Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Comparative Study
Comparison of succinylcholine and rocuronium for first-attempt intubation success in the emergency department.
The objective was to determine the effect of paralytic type and dose on first-attempt rapid sequence intubation (RSI) success in the emergency department (ED). ⋯ Succinylcholine and rocuronium are equivalent with regard to first-attempt intubation success in the ED when dosed according to the ranges used in this study.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
A novel online didactic curriculum helps improve knowledge acquisition among non-emergency medicine rotating residents.
Rotating residents represent a significant proportion of housestaff in academic emergency departments (EDs), yet they rarely receive targeted didactic education during their emergency medicine (EM) rotations. The goals of this study were: 1) to determine the effectiveness of an online didactic curriculum in improving EM knowledge among rotating residents and 2) to assess rotating resident satisfaction with this curriculum. ⋯ After exposure to an online didactic curriculum, rotating residents demonstrated a significant increase in EM knowledge and reported a high level of satisfaction with the didactic program.
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Medication error prevention has become a priority in health care. The Joint Commission recommends that a list of medications, dosages, and allergies be obtained from all patients. The authors sought to determine the accuracy of medication history taking in emergency department (ED) triage. The hypothesis was that there would be significant discrepancies between medications listed in triage and those the patient was actually taking. ⋯ Medication histories performed in ED triage are inaccurate and incomplete.
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Inferior vena cava ultrasound (IVC-US) is a noninvasive bedside tool to assess intravascular volume status. This study set out to investigate the interrater reliability of IVC-US by bedside clinician sonographers and determine whether alternative methods of IVC-US such as B-mode and visual estimation are equally reliable to traditional M-mode. ⋯ Emergency physicians' US measurements of IVC diameter have a high degree of interrater reliability. IVC percent collapse by visual estimation or based on caliper measurements have lower, but still moderate to good reliability. The use of the visual estimation technique should be considered by clinicians who have learned to obtain measured parameters of IVC filling because it is equally reliable to traditional M-mode and can be performed more rapidly.